Sailor Moon Odeum Rapture
by LeGrande Grover
Summary: A conclusion to Sailor Moon Odeum. A woman appears with the seed of Anubis in her. Mamoru has been stripped of his soul and Makoto realizes a new level of agony. The true intent of all the carnage will come to light when Rei's beloved returns.
1. Memoriam Overdrive

**Chapter One – Memoriam Overdrive**

No matter how fast she ran, she couldn't get away. A terrible chill had settled over her, causing quivers to join the quaking of her body, a product of her intense fear and apprehension. The echoing of her footsteps through the damp alleys of Tokyo were a thousand monsters chasing her at once, though she had only truly seen the one. Memories of shadow and claw filled her head while drowning out any rational thought. She had never been more afraid in her life.

The girl slowed a bit at the fourth alley, blindly trying to find anyone who could aid her or send for help. For some reason, no one seemed to be around. The streets seemed cold and barren, even in the late afternoon, and the cool winter air was searing her skin. Her vapor clouded her vision, but she couldn't stop. Biting back her gasping and whimpering, she ran on. She had to get away from it! Unfortunately, that wasn't how this story was going to end.

The first glimpse of the face again made a scream force its way out of her mouth. Deceptive and deadly, that smile was not the kind which made someone stop and chat about the weather. She knew that if she stopped, she would die. Whatever it was chasing her wouldn't be interested in her upcoming bridal shower or newly purchased wedding dress. All it wanted was her fear. That fear was brought to the surface in a shrilled scream which broke the cold air; a scream instigated by the one thing she hoped for more than anything. Someone had come for her.

Grasping onto the shirt of her savoir, her sobs wet the cloth as she pleaded for help and safety. Perhaps it was the need to not be alone when danger was about, but she didn't care who it was as long as they were with her. Something had to scare the monsters back into the darkness. She was merely grateful someone had come to help her.

"Are you afraid?" asked the figure that felt her clawing fear. The voice cut colder than the air and she froze, her fingers still wrapped tightly around the fabric of the clothes. Despite running faster than she ever had before just moment ago, she was now feeling the quake of fear fill her anew. Though every part of her wanted to just freeze and wish everything to go away, something forced her to look up to her savior.

Blazing green eyes bronzed the failing light and wedged ice throughout her body, promoting insolence to the biting air of night which came blowing in almost as her eyes fell upon him. Something unholy burned with those eyes. She could see hatred, malevolence and a resentment which she had never seen in the eyes of a person before. It was more terrifying than a thousand smiling fangs following her in the night. Remarkably, she completely forgot the fear of the first monster.

Her false savior darkened his brow, looking down at her as bird to stone. "Don't worry. It will all be a dream in a moment. Sleep," the man cooed. This time the voice had the opposite affect on her. Her body loosened at his chest, then a piercing at her neck tweaked her senses. As she fell into the waiting arms of a smaller shadow, the false savior pulled his flawed shirt tight and scowled, still dwelling within the shadows. "Another soldier for her army. Get out of my sight," he snarled. The smaller shadow bowed, then faded into the air without a trace.

The savior lingered a moment, staring at nothing and feeling much the same. Time passed like a grain of sand in a breeze, an instant falling prey to thoughts of the past. The city looked the exact same, yet was colder – more repugnant. When his empty hand moved up to his collar, he weaned like a dying tree – only to dry and break at the first weathering of a storm. With a glance into the sky, peat green eyes narrowed into focus at the great beacon in the heavens. "The moon. I hate the moon. I hate the stars. I hate…" he said but such hatred seemed to overpower words. As the words of his own lament came back to him, his voice faded. Empty of anything valuable, he closed his eyes and quivered, immersed in his own distress. He felt as cold as the world around him. He finished his malicious thoughts with a bitter laugh, "Everything."

A flash of black lighting signaled his departure, leaving the alleyway empty and fearful. No one would speak of the young girl's fate in the morning. Even the sun, as it dipped below the horizon, would forget the moment of one girl. She would not be the last. As inevitable as life itself, harm came to the Earth once more. To defend, the planet would call upon its champions to deflect the evil and spare the population. This story would begin like any other.

The story would begin with a dream.

* * *

Dreams had always been a source of inspiration, consultation and prediction for Usagi. Things which would come and things which had been had always seemed to be illustrated within the bounds of her dreams. Dreams seemed to be the novel of existence. Fear and lament were dissolved in her sleep, or intensified tenfold with a breaking gasp and a cold sweat. However, they were also the warm embrace of a destiny and heritage. Like any valuable thing, dreams were as sharp as they were brilliant.

Her dreams lately were those of lament.

Sitting up quickly, Usagi's breath played a cruel trick on her as it eluded her lips, the force of the air she reached for swelling her bosom and rattled the smallest joints of her bed. She had been having nightmares even before the news began to fill with the strange statistics of missing girls in Tokyo. This news fell onto her heavily for she could not dismiss the fact that things hadn't been concluded with the events of a few months prior. Her life had changed when they had all come and gone. Now, with the memories barely beginning to fade and her heart barely beginning to sleep at night, things began to spiral out of control once more.

Looking to her nightstand, Usagi's eyes dulled in the sparse moonlight seeping in from her window, the object of her attention casting shadow onto her mirror with malicious innocence. "Mamo-chan…" she whispered. Even her voice seemed to fail at fully expressing the depth of how hard his disappearance had hit her, not to mention the circumstances at which she lost him. Not only had Mamoru been lost into want, but also the jaded senshi of which she had grown very close to. These were days when she couldn't even look at Rei without feeling a tearing of her heart.

Hunched forward and catatonic, Usagi stared at the intricate designs the obstructions of the moonlight made on her bed cover. No one she longed for showed themselves in her dreams anymore. Mamoru's face was blurred and obscure, Yamito's memory had all but diminished and even Rei would not comfort her in her sleep. She truly felt alone for the first time. All which permeated her dreams now were screams of fear and desperation which could not be quenched by her waking.

Always, there was the gathering of water and the reflection. Never was it her reflection, but a person of great malice and power who stared back with eyes burning red. This woman, always staring right back at Usagi in any form she felt, was the embodiment of all which kept Usagi awake at night.

Her dreams were then torn in two by a flash of light and a mere instant of clarity which always escaped her a moment after she awoke. Frustration had never dreamt before.

The only other thing she could ever remember was a tree, waning low to the ground and hanging leaves just above the water. With leaves browning and trunk cracking, only one thing kept this being from falling to the water to drown and it was a shackle of white metal which clasped the trunk and fastened a chain to a spot on the ground. It was this white metal which kept the tree aloft and, as much as Usagi could understand, suspended it from consumption. Of these things, she didn't know the meaning.

All she knew was that her dreams abandoned her.

The Ministry of Education had declared a special vacation for all schools within Tokyo because of the growing number of young girls disappearing. The schools in the Juuban district were barren of life as worried parents and attentive police officers kept an eye on the street for anything suspicious. Not one person had seen one of these abductions, which seemed like a probable impossibility since there had been so many, but it was all they could do to help.

Yet, there were others who could do more.

It was defiance to the request. All of the senshi had gathered in a single place to discuss this growing threat, giving some criminals the perfect chance to snare an entire group of prime subjects. At least, that was what Rei's grandfather had been preaching about the entire time. Despite having a polite Ami to sit and listen to his ranting about the dangers of such a party, the girls had all come.

Meetings of this sort had radically changed in the waning days of the year. Usagi, along with Rei, seemed eternally preoccupied with the matters of their hearts, though every one of the girls could be prescribed this condition. Usagi and Rei were the hardest hit. "Another three girls disappeared this week. It's unreal," Minako remarked and idly flipped through a newspaper whose front page read loudly of girls going missing in Tokyo. It was such broad news that all directions pulsed with the sound of it.

Makoto was pale, for she had felt somewhat sick as of late. All of the girls had made comments about it but nothing seemed to make sense about it. Physically, she felt fine. None of her joints ached, nor did any of her muscles. Her head was fine and her stomach set. It was something buried which ailed her, something that had neither cure nor symptom. Letting out a weak sigh, she leaned back against the steps and looked to Haruka and Michiru, hoping for some wisdom and grace. Neither had any quick answers. "We've been looking for weeks now and there isn't anything to find. These girls just vanish," Haruka snorted and shifted her arms across her chest, a distinct contrast to the light presence of her significant other.

Michiru nodded and looked dim. "There is no trace or sign. If it is someone, they aren't making themselves known," she added.

"Perhaps they are looking for one of us again," Ami asked as she broke away from her conversation to joint them. None of them seemed to really have an idea about what was going on, but they all wanted to know the truth. "What do you think, Rei-chan?" she said as she turned her eyes to the priestess of the shrine.

Rei had been staring at a bare cherry tree since everyone had come. She wasn't usually so distant, but it was getting harder and harder to stay focused lately. She had Yamito to blame for that. Unlike Usagi, her dreams had been completely bare, forcing her to reach out for memories which burned more than they soothed. Where she lay hoping for a touch on her skin, she found cold air. When she looked into the flames for those dark eyes and that reserved fear of himself, she only found destruction. Even now, as her friends looked on and her grandfather lingered elsewhere in concern, she could find no relief of him. No one knew the loss of something so precious.

"Rei-chan?" Ami asked again.

"Hmm?" she finally responded and looked back to her friends. They all looked at her in great concern and she did the cruelest thing to them. She smiled and feigned happiness. "I'm sorry. I guess I spaced out there a little," responded the distraught girl.

"There's something going on," said someone else. Everyone was quick to look to Usagi, who sat forward leaning on her knees and staring into the ground. She had been distant as well. Everyone knew why. "I've been having these terrible dreams lately. They seem so peaceful, but they're cold and empty. I keep hoping to see Mamoru in them but he never comes. But…" she began but the subject became too painful. Her face had explained the depth of these concerns more passionately than any words could have, causing each of the girls to frown slightly. Usagi slowly looked up, though didn't even attempt to mock them with a smile. There was pain in her that burned and pierced and nothing she knew of could make it go away.

Yet, as time and destiny had always proven, hope still existed somewhere in those eyes. "Things aren't finished yet. There are too many questions that were left unanswered and too many things which were still in that place. He has to be behind this. I know I couldn't have finished him," she said, her brow dropping at the thought of Anubis. It was something sweet and sour to all of them. Anubis had been a foe of tremendous power and ability, mocking them with his superior smirk through the lips of their loved friend, but his survival also meant that somewhere Mamoru could still be alive. If they could do anything to help their princess, they would do so.

This note of hope was accented by the arrival of another. A figure was approaching that sent all of them on guard. It caused the soldiers in them to stand. Yet when they saw who it was, a wave of relief and happiness came over them. Her return marked the beginning of their convalescence.

Setsuna stepped into the courtyard slowly, her figure breaking the scene in hues of green and purple. There was a distinct expression of sorrow in her eyes as she approached them, for the tidings from her absence lay on her like a great weight. The things Jikan had told her, she knew, were superficial due to the fact that her involvement in this would be directly relevant to the outcome. In fact, he had told her many things which had come as very strange, almost foreboding. It didn't sit well with her. It was the small details which he had told her that caused the worst pain. She looked over each of them, tapping what she knew as truth for each of them and giving them her support with each timid step. "I'm afraid Usagi is correct," she said as she broke the air with her voice. Each of the girls looked to her with an impending dread of knowledge; knowledge that what Setsuna had to say was usually what had to be. She was, after all, the senshi of time. "I have learned who it is that is taking all of these girls. What she plans to do with them, I do not know, but what I do know is that Mamoru is with her," she said bluntly. She had always been one to bypass the drama of words. She simply did her duty. Her explanation made Usagi gasp, heightened by the information of her beloved.

Haruka quirked a brow. "She?" she said gravely.

Setsuna nodded. "Yes. I do not know her name, nor do I know how she is involved with Anubis, but what I do know is that she has adopted his objectives. She is the one who is taking all of these girls to create a barrier of protection around her. She fears you all. But, there is another thing which makes this critical," the ageless soldier explained. The potential of having enemies was not lost on any of the girls, so this revelation did not hit any of them hard. It was the lingering silence which Setsuna let fall onto them which unsettled their faces. She continued with a dropping tone, "It concerns the fate of the Scion."

This had an entirely different affect on the girls. Those who had cherished the fallen soldiers of the other realm felt disbelief wash over them. In their hearts, they each knew that somehow they would see their cherished ones again – that theirs was a death too unnatural and too early for mercy to allow. Yet it was still difficult to believe and it was only because Setsuna was the one telling them that they truly appreciated its merit. Questions about Anubis fell away. Concerns about Hotaru were laid aside. Even Mamoru's state of being felt secondary.

They were gripped by the ignorance of love.

However, Setsuna's eyes, though hoping to show her happiness to the few, could not hide the intense remorse she felt towards the one senshi she now approached. Things would only become harder for her, but she could not say a word. Everything was speculation, even to her, since Jikan had refused to say more. Yet she did know that an element of the return would be so sour that it could possibly spoil the sprouting smiles on the girls' faces. She lamented the fact that good things never came alone. There was always a tarnished lining.

There was just pity in Setsuna as she placed a hand on Makoto's shoulder, beginning the path of pain and tears for the young girl. She knew the young princess wasn't prepared for it, though there was little choice in the matter. Whether or not any of them would endure the trials ahead, Setsuna looked deeply into Makoto's fearful eyes and rang the gong of anticipation with her soft voice, "It's time."


	2. Eaves of Hatred

Chapter Two – Eaves of Hatred  
  
Gloom possessed the night. Parchments of clouds wiped across the lazy moon in a failed attempt to cover the Earth in solitude, only to be broken apart by the few sparse clearings which granted paling moonlight onto the face of the Earth. This alternating spectrum of light and dark gave an unbalanced feeling to the cold winter night and sent the moods of the senshi into pits of doubt and caution. News so sweet from the tongue of Sailor Pluto fell bitterly onto the headlines of the times, giving dank warning of coincidence and destiny. A miraculous return of lovers lost came as news tainted by the perpetual loss of Tokyo's youth; its female youth. By no matter how much they wanted the time to pass quickly, time would only obey as far as to pass.  
  
All of the senshi had come since all of the senshi had some personal desire to see their darker counterparts once more. The four soldiers of tragic dust had made an impact on all of them. Disregarding the method of their return, they only cared about the product.  
  
Ami and Minako had been the most eager to arrive. Their counterparts held a viable bond to them and both had grown intimately bonded to the shade and shadow of their planets. For them, it was like a reunion long neglected. Makoto had a much less stable reason for being excited. Though she finally held some answers to her companion's brooding and agonizing past, she still had no foundation for her to begin with. However, with Haruka and Michiru here for the same reason as she, she felt supported and looked forward to sharing in some of her friends' wealth.  
  
Rei was a very different story. None of the others had shared in the truth which she had seen brewing in the eyes of Yamito. No trivial differences could amount to the unreachable truth that circled him and penetrated him like a serpent of flame.  
  
Not even she knew what he was exactly anymore.  
  
Still, through time and patience, she was willing to find out. Her patient expression was glass and fire, but paled to Usagi's. A prince fell out of time, lost to the nothingness of anyone's mind. Until Sailor Pluto had confirmed it, she had no idea if Mamoru was alive or not. It ate at her like a great beast in her mind, draining the life from her dreams and smashing the shores into the oceans of her soul. There would be no solace until she was in the arms of her beloved once more. As she waited, she stared into a lingering puddle on the ground, snared by the subtle séance of wind over water. Her dreams had given no refute lately, but the icons within them stuck with her no matter where she was. Pulling her coat a little tighter over herself, she burdened her eyes with the puddle even more as silence left her with no conversation.  
  
Water was like a dream. It shaped and molded to the wearing which bore it, always reflecting the surface but blurring what lay submerged. Steam and ice were the waking and falling of a dream. It would always begin as mist, ambiguous as vapor but drifting in ways defined by life. As mist came to dewdrop, things became clear and fluid, dragging meaning along in a current that was never seen but always felt. In the end, images and memories froze into blocks, perfectly and crisply vivid at the moment of arousal but all too quickly fracturing and melting back into mist; a mist which would drift away at the slightest breeze. Then, all at once, the water was gone.  
  
Usagi had trouble separating what was real and what was not about the puddle of water she stared into. Shapes and lines seemed to meld together in an effort to confuse her and cast her into the realm of doubt. A tree hanging so close to the membrane of the water was perfectly reflected, but prone to shattering that image upon leave's first touch. Nothing about her dream still made sense, but at least she wouldn't see that terrifying face looking back at her through the puddle. At least that part was dream.  
  
"It is happening."  
  
Sailor Pluto, the only one of them who appeared as a senshi, twisted her garnet orb staff in her hand slightly, shifting her weight to face the eerily luminescent light of the frost on the grass. In the winter's first frost, the grass still lay underneath in a faded green, giving its last breath of life before sleep until spring. The park was, fortunately, empty due to the cold and the curfew now in place. Only eight figures lingered, anxiously awaiting the foretold arrival of lost allies.  
  
Sailor Pluto had the curse of being the only one who knew what was about to happen. Even though Jikan had left much of it in the dark, she knew that the return of the Scion would not mark times of joy, but times of trial. Everything was about to change and the timeless senshi lifted her eyes to the pockmarked moon above. Hatred was not a thing that came easy to her, but she felt it towards the very force which she served. "Why must everything be so difficult for them?" She knew no answers would come and she knew that the trails would be more difficult for some than others, but she also knew that the power of her superior was not without justification and that had there been no hope, he would have not even gotten involved. Still, it was her place in the hierarchy which was defined by the things she felt; a great sympathy for her friends and her princess. She knew in no place at no time could she ever be what the mysterious and clairvoyant Jikan was.  
  
The first indication that someone was coming was that an unsettling glow had marked the frost all around them, giving off a purple haze which flowed through the park like a poisonous viper stalking prey. It sent defenses up on all senshi, but Sailor Pluto was, oddly, the most at ease. She simply stared forward at the ominous shadow which came walking towards them from the night. None of the others fell across it, but the shadow moved like a whisper over the frost-bitten ground, bare feet treading so lightly across the frost that no mark was made. Shadow and night bonded until the figure had made a path all the way to the princess, stopping mere breaths away.  
  
It was then that none of them could miss the blessed white gown which bathed the figure. The satins and silks did not cling to the lithe form, but rather caressed it. This woman, for no other creature as beautiful could be a man, simply radiated before Usagi. Usagi was frozen in her place. A face she saw reflected in water looked back at her through drifts of white silk. This elegant beauty did not lose its brilliance on her, but did send a rooted warning through her mind of rot which existed under great beauty. Nevertheless, she could not react to this woman. None of them could.  
  
"We are finally able to meet, Tsukino Usagi...Sailor Moon...Princess Serenity," the woman said in a voice which could crack the heavens. Usagi felt no energy in her to react, but only to stare headlong into the depthless violet eyes which this woman possessed, a distinct contrast to the white robes and milky complexion she also bore.  
  
The woman's smile was equally intoxicating as she looked around, her eyes falling conveniently short of Sailor Pluto. "I am pleased to meet you all. Each of the Sailor senshi has born a place in my heart, for you each are so dear to me that I can offer no words to express it." There was no method to her, just pure intent. A warm light bathed them all despite the lack of the moon behind clouds. The air scalded their skin with heat but their breaths still made vapor. It was a chilling repentance.  
  
"Who...who are you?"  
  
The woman looked back to Usagi with her timid smile, appearing to be very pleased at hearing her speak. "I am Eve. I am one born out of darkness and malice into beauty and truth. My existence was naught until the moment a great darkness was cast into defeat and reformed into purity, thus giving birth to a child made from human and soldier alike." Confusion was rampant on Usagi's face and this only further amused Eve. "My dearest friends, I am all that is left of Anubis. His power was born into me, nurtured by the essence of many of you and brought into being by a star above you all."  
  
The rationalization of their ill feelings had been proved. They had all known that the events surrounding the defeat of Anubis had left them a bit empty, but things were now beginning to come together. Much to their surprise, the relevant information came from one of their own in the form of Sailor Pluto. "She is the offspring of Anubis, or the closest thing to it. He actually exists inside of her, yet cannot retain a form of his own in this realm. In desperation, he created a new being to protect all that he had left; an avatar to ensure something of him remained in this world. She is both his child and his mother, for she exists because of him and he because of her." Sailor Pluto's explanation lacked any passion, for she stared at the woman with a blatant contempt.  
  
Eve's eyes had wandered to her as she spoke, also reserving a very bland expression for her. It was obvious that the affection which she harbored for the others would not be extended to Sailor Pluto. In any case, she continued to the amazement of the others. "Do not despair. I am not like my father. Many of you are a part of me, as my father touched you in your final battle and integrated that into me. I share many memories and many emotions that you have and it exists as part of me. I am goddess, but I am also human and senshi. So you see, I am but an ally to you all," she said with a warm gesture to them all.  
  
All of the jewels and all of the satin in the world couldn't beat down the feeling which Usagi felt in her chest from Eve. As beautiful as she appeared, there was still a black aura around her which stemmed from the creation. Anubis created her and he was no angel; he was a malicious fallen god who devoured universes in an effort to commend his own existence. It was these reasons which forced Usagi to step back from Eve. "I don't believe you."  
  
Eve was a bit put off by this, but could not lose her radiance. She simply tilted her head to the side and asked the obvious question. "Why?"  
  
"Somehow...I know that these terrible things have been happening in Tokyo because of you. All of the girls who have been disappearing have been because of you! Tell me the truth! Are you the cause of this?"  
  
"You are very perceptive. I am the one responsible for taking all of the girls from Tokyo. Does this bother you?" Usagi, along with the others, were taken back by the casual admittance Eve had just given. Though she held a beauty and presence which defied the very memory of Anubis, she had a semblance of his philosophy. "I am joining in your crusade to free the world of pain and suffering. I will bring an end to hate by destroying all those who advocate it. To do this, I have freed an entire army of enslaved girls from their stations. Our power alone is insufficient to bring about purity in the world." Eve's words would be accented by dozens of figures appearing from the night as well, all wearing glorious robes and swelling with a beauty all their own. The girls who had been taken were now changed – transcended.  
  
Usagi and the others looked around in suspension, forced to consider this turn of events as a viable train of thought. Change never did come easily, but it could never be forced either. Philosophies crashed as the assumptions of the senshi were surmised by Ami, who found her voice to protest. "You can't abduct people because you think they want to help you change the world! How many of these girls willingly joined your crusade?"  
  
Makoto felt the need to join in. "Yah! These girls were happy until you came along and took them from their lives! How can you say we're on the same side when you do things that are wrong!?"  
  
A cloud of doubt formed across Eve's face as her arms leveled at her sides. This was quickly becoming something that she wasn't amused with and it showed with the slightly aggressive movements of her army. "Please, my friends, do not soil our glorious joining with petty concerns. Each of these girls was burdened by a life of sadness and despair. What I have given them is the power to defend themselves and even to make this world a place where everyone can be happy and safe. They all now know the true happiness of being part of my acolytes."  
  
Like all great visionaries, Eve was bound by the single perspective which she subscribed. Everything else had become something less than the truth and easily swept away as false perception. With the secluded voice inside of her, she saw the disbelief in the eyes of her so called friends and frowned, her bare feet lifting from the frosty ground in a display of her powers. "If you will not join me, then I cannot permit you to be a burden on the new world order I bring. I will change this city into something beautiful; a gem to be admired from all across the globe. Then I will finish polishing this world. After that, there are galaxies of darkness to see the light!" It was the light coming from Eve which was hurting the senshi's eyes, but giving them an insight into just how much of Anubis's powers Eve had retained.  
  
Usagi was purged with the affliction of yet another misled soul trying to invert the universe and she quickly broke Eve's glory by calling out in a voice which cut right through Eve's display. "We won't let you scorch the Earth to make everyone right! People have a choice! As much as I want the world to change, it will only happen when everyone wants it to! Until that day, they have the right to choose what they want and not be forced by anyone to live a certain way!"  
  
"That's right!"  
  
"Yah!"  
  
By the end of Usagi's passionate speech, each of the girls was standing next to her with the reform to protect the world Usagi wished for. It was the creed of a Sailor senshi to protect not only love, but the freedom to express that love. A world of purity was a world washed of choices and none of them could imagine that world. They couldn't allow it.  
  
Eve was aloft before them, staring down as her acolytes surrounded these soldiers. Though the voice inside of her was screaming at her to destroy them, there were parts of her which loved them just as dearly. It was a conflict inside without equal. "Very well. If the Sailor senshi will not strive to see a better world, then I shall create it without them. This will be made done by the hand of my general."  
  
All eyes were forced upon the figure which stood to the right of Eve now, a tall figure obscured by her light until she fluttered to the ground next to it. As the shades of light were lifted from the eyes of all, each of the senshi was aghast as the identity of her general.  
  
The ominous green eyes were not something easily forgotten. A skin of black fabric covered a proud form and completely assaulted his appearance, inflecting his poise with fitting curves and flowing out gracefully like a pair of hakama over his legs. Clasps around his wrists were attached to artful chains that joined together behind his back at a binding metal collar around his neck, fraught with symbols and designs of an ancient origin. His uniform had changed him, but the look of him had remained. Green hair could not attain the trademark spike it once had, but still held a semblance of the style though it slicked back more. There was no doubting who the person was. Everyone could see it without fail. Acrolyth Kage offered them no remorse as he stood defiantly next to Eve, who came to rest with her arms on her general in a very intimate gesture.  
  
"My general will bring about the change I desire. Who better to weed out all of the hate and pain in the world than with someone so educated in both?"  
  
Her general made no reaction to her, but stared at Usagi with the same fierce eyes that he had once bore. His new uniform left an eerie chime in the air, as chains didn't bind but remind. In his right hand was his sword, the catalyst for all of his power. Though he simply stood there, Usagi felt a renewed fear of him that she had nearly lost from before. The return of the first of the lost soldiers was within a moment of despair and heartbreak.  
  
Makoto felt an intense hole opening inside of her. Never in her wildest nightmares could she imagine that her reunion with Kage would end up like this. Hope had rested with her that his life could have gotten better since his sister's murderer had been killed, but this new hatred which she saw in him rose above even that of before. Feeling weak in the knees, she could barely look at him as Eve held to him. Her hope had been washed away by more sorrow.  
  
"This poor boy has been suffering for so many years. All of the tragic children from the other world have. To show to you that I am no monster, I shall return these to you," Eve said quietly and raised a hand from her general's chest, gesturing to a small area between them all. It was there that a sparkle of light exploded in a chromatic burst and then left two figures on the ground. Kurai and Suteki were unconscious but alive, proof that all of the Scion had returned. Upon seeing them, Ami and Minako rushed to them and fell upon them, both overwhelmed at their true presence but also eager to make sure they were okay.  
  
There was no sign of Yamito. Both Usagi and Rei were looking around, but they both found a chilling void when nothing else appeared. Rei felt a surge of anger in her as she looked to Eve, as if the entire universe was playing a cruel joke on her by not giving back her lover. "Where is Yamito?"  
  
It was not Eve, but the former Scion at her side who stepped forward and looked down upon them all, giving Rei an answer which settled no pain. "Yamito cannot come back. His sins as a Scion outweigh all of us and he was denied existence." That news hit Rei and Usagi both, but Eve also seemed a bit shocked as he spoke. She said nothing as he continued. He almost seemed amused at the fate of Yamito. "There will be no more Scion. He is beyond any of us now. These two humans are now the lucky ones out of us all," he continued and looked down to his friends, both unaware of anything that was going on, before opening his free hand to expose two rings which bore the planetary symbols of Venus and Mercury on them, "because they will no longer feel the pains and suffering of the name Scion." To the surprise to all that watched him, Kage tossed the two rings into the air before him, his body tightening into a very aggressive stance, then pulling the blade of his celestial sword through the air, severing the two rings entirely in half. At the moment of impact, both Suteki and Kurai flinched in their dreaming slumber, as if something was ripped from their very souls.  
  
When in fact, that was exactly what happened.  
  
The broken rings fell to the ground and dulled, turning to dust on the frost-bitten blades of grass. Though all watched them in pure splendor, Eve's general looked up from the rings to the shocked senshi. "They are soldiers no more. As the last Scion, I deny my guardian Jupiter. I have no duty but to my own ends. I am now only the general of Eve," he scowled and let a web of lightning arc across his body in a display of his intent to still pervert the power of Jupiter despite renouncing the name. There was no denying that Kage possessed one of the most lethal forms of power, one the cause of his great pain, but to renounce the force behind that power was almost unimaginable.  
  
This was, perhaps, the thing which hit Makoto hardest. Watching him slip away from her once more, she bit her bottom lip, hopelessly trying to call out to him. She wouldn't have the chance.  
  
Eve began to laugh softly as the army of her acolytes began to fade away into the night, soon leaving only her and her general. With parting words, she began to fade on a wind of sweet fragrance and warm touch. "Though you have forsaken me, I still regard you all as chosen. No harm shall come to you or your families. Please do not oppose me, friends. I cannot speak for the actions of my general all of the time."  
  
Soon, there was only Kage. He stared at them all, totally immersed in his hate; a hate that was even stronger than when he had come before. Something had shackled him to it and would not let go. Though Haruka wished to beat some sense into him, Makoto to give him the warm touch of affection and Usagi to sway him from his path, no one dared to move on him. That seemed to appease him enough to end the night with nothing but a warning.  
  
"Don't fool yourselves. You are my enemies...all of you. I will chase my revenge through hell's gates, down the devils back and into oblivion before I give up...and there isn't one of you I won't kill to get it. Stay out of my way or Senso's death will be poetic compared to the hell I bring down on you."  
  
With that, a dark lightning took him from their sights and they were alone in their misery. Suteki and Kurai lay dormant, ignorant to the horrors of their reality. An intense sickness was trying to break Makoto's will, though she fought to keep a brave front in spite of her tragic fate. Usagi still had no word of Mamoru and Rei received the worst word of all. All Sailor Pluto could do was watch them all, knowing this was only the beginning.  
  
"This can't be happening," Usagi gasped breathlessly as she fell to her knees, staring into the puddle once more with more on her mind than ever before. No answers, more questions and the ancient evil of conflict against affection. Staring headlong into the water, she closed her eyes and wished it all to just go away; to be normal once more. 


	3. My Paramour Retribution

Chapter Three – My Paramour Retribution  
  
Never had the road seemed so long in front of her. A great weight of gray hung on Usagi's face as if it were attached to her very skin, though gravity had little to do with the pull on her brow. She was brewing an assortment of doubts and troubles in her mind, giving them permission to defeat her countenance with great fury and efficiency, dimming the brilliance of the very stars in the sky. From the confines of the back seat of Haruka's car, she sat waiting for the place she had never been to arrive before her; a dark, dank residence that only allowed the least fortunate in. Somehow, the apartment would seem barren with only two.  
  
"This has to be the place. Did they really live here?" Haruka asked no one in particular as she leaned onto her steering wheel, taking a long glance at the building which matched the address of the slip of paper given to her by Ami.  
  
The building was decrepit. Although still somehow lingering on through the years through irreparable neglect and perpetual shadowing of the rest of the city, it stood only as a reminder that not all who lived in Tokyo lived in the wonderful homes which most of the girls had privilege to. With no aesthetics to speak of, it was a chilling reminder just how different they were; the senshi of the light and the former senshi of the dark. Even as the three girls walked in, the tenants, so to speak, were strangely aware of these intruders that stuck out like a white moth on soot-caked bark. The halls were worn but clean; the woodwork decaying but intact. It was the epitome of underlying truth beneath a molded exterior. Michiru found it ironic but said nothing.  
  
As they stood before the solid, chipping wooden door, all three girls paused. Inside would be reunion and education, but only at the price of memory. They said nothing when Rei and Makoto both declined to come, the reasons so painfully obvious that dwelling on another thought seemed sadistic. The sounds of voices, both low and high, told the tale of lovers once again together through tragedy. This would be an occasion of smiles and sighs. Without a knock, Haruka pushed open the door with a long, desperate squeak.  
  
Instantly, both Ami and the now conscious Kurai looked up from one another, obviously engrossed in talk until the entrance, and both offered the exact smile; a sort of saddened reunion smile tarnished by betrayal. Michiru and Haruka both returned the smile, but Usagi could not find the strength to join them. Her eyes were tired and fell instantly to Kurai, for she knew that he would be the vessel of all answers that her heart was demanding to hear. They entered and closed the door, only to be greeted once again with another of the fallen soldiers.  
  
Suteki was on an entirely different page than the others. He was still brimming with an unstoppable smile that could not be denied by anyone, including Usagi in this case. "Usa! Can you believe it?! One minute I'm just drowning in black water and then...whoom!" he called and made wild gestures, elastic faces and tones that could only describe Suteki. Usagi couldn't not smile and even stifled a small laugh at him. It was good to see him again. When Minako emerged behind him, nothing could dim her smile either. Dreams fell into reality when her animate lover had returned to her, even dousing the sting of darker truths. Barely able to keep herself from crying again, she simply slipped her arm around his side and embraced him, forcing Suteki to throw his arms around and laugh excitedly for his new lease on life. Nothing defied time like a moment in the arms of the beloved.  
  
Kurai and Ami had been watching the two also, but Kurai's attention soon moved back to Usagi and all celebrations fell from him. Even through the reflective lenses of his glasses, his eyes were melancholy. Like Suteki, he was now completely human and able to merge with this world as if born on the very day of his arrival; no longer feeling any pull of his guardian planet in his veins. It was both emancipating and chilling at the same time and though Suteki was flawlessly coping with the situation, Kurai could not hide the concern carved into him. "Please pardon the condition of this place. I assume you have come here for answers, Usagi. I'm afraid I have very few." It instantly set the tone for the place and Suteki and Minako were instant scenery. Ami slid next to Kurai but kept a small distance from him, maintaining her joy even though she wished to spend the entire lapse of a week in Kurai's arms as well.  
  
Usagi sat in front of Kurai on a beaten mat which was the only covering for the entire room. She had noticed that the filling of their place was as dire as the building itself; a testament to the conditions in which the fallen soldiers had persisted. There were no utilities to speak of and only another room adjacent to their current location which had three mats on the floor. None of the meanings hit her as all she could think about was one thing. "Kurai...is Mamoru alive?"  
  
Kurai's brow crinkled at the most obvious question, for the answer he knew would not bode well onto the face of this girl whom he believed in more than any other. "Please bear with me, for what I remember before waking in this place is both vague and distant. Consciousness came only in moments of mock clarity before feeling something I can only describe as electric shock hit me and I would drift away again. However, in those fleeting moments of consciousness, I was able to see Mamoru. He is alive." This news obviously lifted a great burden off of Usagi and she sighed in relief, though she didn't entirely trust the tone of voice Kurai was using. Before she could rejoice, Kurai continued in a rushed tone. "However, I'm afraid that what I saw was not comforting. His eyes were dulled, lacking any cognitive presence. He stood but showed no sway of consciousness. It is my guess that though his body is alive, Mamoru does not exist within it. I do not know why." This news was obviously more shattering than the initial news and Usagi felt heavy again. Somehow, news came in two shades for her; painful and ironic.  
  
"But if he is still alive and somehow still trapped within Eve, there's a chance to save him, right?" Haruka chimed in, remembering what she had seen and heard in the battle with Anubis.  
  
Michiru nodded in agreement. "Yes, all is not hopeless. I'm sure that we can somehow bring him back again."  
  
Although the comforting didn't seem to hit Usagi on the surface, she felt a little better inside. With a small nod, she looked back to Kurai with the most lethal questions brimming her mind. "What do you know about Eve, Kurai?"  
  
"I'm afraid not much at all. Kage had told me sparse facts about her before the waves of unconsciousness would take me. Unfortunately," he continued and he shifted his weight, resting his elbows on his knees and placing his chin against his hands, "Kage may not be the most reliable source of help any longer."  
  
Though oblivious at first, Ami and Minako had broken the news to Kurai and Suteki with great reservation. It didn't come as a shock to them, but they were visibly shaken by it. A stale silence fit perfectly into the room until the most aggressive, and silently hit by the subject, felt sponsored to press along. "Why is he doing this?" Haruka demanded, not at all showing any remorse for feeling hurt and betrayed by him. Even though she had looked upon Kage as a friend and rival, she knew next to nothing about him. Not many did.  
  
Kurai sighed, giving a glance to Suteki. Suteki was nearly catatonic now, staring into the ground with no intent on returning glances to either Minako or Kurai. Kurai understood perfectly and felt the burden of the storyteller. "To understand Kage, you must understand the past. As you well know, and as I'm sure Makoto-san has found out, Kage is a very callous person. Even though we were a team, Kage felt a great resentment towards us all, especially Yamito. In your world, he rarely stayed in this place and we sometimes went weeks before seeing him. Now he has joined this new enemy, the very bringer of his tragedy, and opposes all of us. Despite this, do not be too hard on Kage. Once, before the great wars started on our world, he was a very different person," Kurai said, a sort of sad smile coming to his face as he remembered times of a dead world.  
  
"He was already considered a master of martial arts by the time he was fourteen, the same year in which I met him. He was a sort of prodigy, you see; a child who held this uncanny ability to predict how opponents moved and notice even the smallest details about someone. His parents had died when he was very young and he grew up in a monastery with the only other remaining member of his family; a younger sister named Mika. He studied at this monastery with the intent on becoming a monk one day, but only to repay the kindness offered to him and his sister. Being extremely versed in history, he idolized many old heroes such as Oda Nobunaga and Maeda Keiji. His sister was educated and cared for and they were together. For this, Kage grew up as a much disciplined fighter, as he was already not only a Scion, but the first Scion to unlock our Acrolyth level of power, but also had a great heart which was entirely possessed by his sister. He was the very essence of obedience and service to his order and any others who needed help. Until that incident, I had never known anyone as protective or loving as Kage, especially to his sister."  
  
The story trailed a bit as Kurai smiled lightly, obviously caught up with his fonder memories of Kage. However, there was the great question burning on everyone's mind as they listened to this almost preposterous depiction of the same Kage which they all knew and regarded as abrasive at best. It was Haruka who asked it, although she could already guess. Never would have any of them guessed the viciousness of the facts accounted. "And what incident changed him into the Kage we all know?"  
  
The casual tone she spoke in caused Kurai to look on her with a slightly offended glance, for he was about to relay to them just why Yamamori Kage was as malicious and hardened as he was the day that they all met him.

* * *

> Flashes of images were streaming, as if in a tunnel and speeding towards the other end. Some images lingered longer than others, bathed in a vague blur of repressed light and sometimes unfocused as a jumble of movement and sound. This place that possessed his sleep was of no remorse or pity. Even in his dreams, Kage was tormented.  
  
Always it began the same way. The soothing memories of younger days; of soft sunlit gardens with cherry blossoms falling like pink snow and of that painfully beautiful face which smiled to him. Vividness had no power over the depth of this part of his dream. Kage found himself smaller, less able than he remembered as he stood in gardens of swaying greens and whites. Reality escaped him as he felt the weight of her on his shoulders and of her hands holding to the bottom of his chin for stability and safety. The abundant laughter burned in his ears for some reason. Its sweetness felt almost bitter, even though his smile was nearly as big as hers. Mika had always squealed in delight when able to ride on her brother's shoulders, hugging his head lightly when he would run with her or wriggle when he would tickle her sides. She never let go of him. Kage found no greater joy than when he was with her; the only person in existence that was truly bound to him by more than title or utility.  
  
Mika was his beloved.  
  
His dreams would soon move on to more warm tones. During those times when Kage would stand before three of his elder monks, practicing his form and technique even into the forbidden forms of ancient times, Mika would sit and watch. The pride which she felt for her brother was beyond measure and her heart would race whenever he would move through a form. Nothing could make her more proud than being the sister of such an able martial artist and devout champion of his trade. She would beam at any mention of his name and his deeds to his fellow man. His restraint and calm patience when he was taunted defeated any shame at being insulted. She knew that some day he would grow up to be the finest monk ever to come from the monastery.  
  
Just as his memory allowed him a moment of peace, that fated night would come next. Kage could still remember the frigid rain on his face as he ran towards the monastery. Even in his Acrolyth form, it was a cold rain that was chilling him right to the bone. The last words of his opposite, Senso, had tore at him and he was desperately trying to prove his fears were wrong.  
  
As he broke into the courtyard, his heart had stopped. All of the monks who had been so kind to him lay dead across the ground, dyeing the clear ponds red and smashing the flowers into dust. They hadn't even been turned into Gangers, but brutally slain as a message. Never had a Scion felt such remorse but only long enough to realize the fear. He soon ran blatantly over the dead monks, his eyes burning and his breath seeming to simply fall away from his lips. Before he could even reach the dormitories, he saw her lying on the ground.  
  
Instantly, he was frozen. No amount of training or strength could have moved him or even his eyes beyond to Senso, who stood a few feet past with no expression to offer. A brother so broken by the sight stumbled forward, feeling so wrenched by fear that his lips mouthed a name that his throat would not speak. His remarkable sword fell to the ground like a toy and drowned in a small puddle. Staggering to the small body, he fell to his knees and stared, his eyes so wide that red tears formed at the corners. Tears soon diluted them as her fragile little body was lifted and he was able to see what they had done to his beloved sister.  
  
She was breathing, her eyes barely open but only as far as the bruises and cuts would allow. He had never seen any beaten so savagely as they girl he held in his arms; so much so that the recognition of his relation almost escaped. No one could have done this to his Mika. Yet, she laid there, the same soft hands clutching his shirt as blood fell to the ground more readily than the rain. It wasn't just his eyes forced to endure, but his other senses as well. The smell of blood, such sweet blood that burned in his nose, was something he carried with him to the day. Breath poisoned with blood boiled at his ears as he listened to each grow shorter and shallower. The rain, though chilled to the point of crystal, felt hot to her skin. No smile would ever grace her face again. Never would he hear her voice call to him.  
  
Before anything could matter, Mika died while laying her green eyes on her most beloved possession in the world; her splintered brother.  
  
All that had defined Kage until that moment died with the small girl. The entire world could never atone for the passing of that girl and the lord of all planets fell into the eclipse of the sun that very day. The cosmos itself conspired to rob him of his humanity and it was exactly the thing which it took. On his knees, holding a lifeless body to him as if to somehow attain resurrection, the mighty and pathetic Kage fell.  
  
Senso had not moved. He had stared the entire time with a very lewd expression on his face; like a child wishing to go back into the womb. Like his other, not a muscle stirred as two others appeared out of the rain, their hands unable to wash clean of the blood on them; the blood of monks and princesses. They both stood behind the Scion, staring down at him with lamenting eyes. Hearing his sobs and disgusted with his posture, one reached down and picked the celestial sword from the ground. In it reflected the faces which would possess Kage from that moment on.  
  
"This is our great opponent? This retch is who the master has spoken of his great plan for?" the first figure asked.  
  
"Pathetic. Even after we have killed his love and taken all that is his, he does nothing. Look, even his shadow feels this remorse. It's disgusting."  
  
"Killing him now would be no fun. Instead, I want to give him something to remember us by," the first figure replied, stepping forward and grabbing the weeping boy by his hair. Wrenching his head back, he looked down at the face of the soldier that held no more substance. Kage knelt there like a doll, neither reacting nor fighting the grip of the dark figure. With an ominous smile, the figure leaned his head down and spoke with a perverse pleasure at seeing him like this. "Your sister cried out for you, even when I ground her face into the ground with my heel. How easily her small body broke. She cried like a whore as we tasted her. Even now I can't get the stink off me." Even though the words were malicious and magnificent, the boy felt nothing. He stared up at the face with no life; as dead as the girl in his arms.  
  
For this, the figure spit in his face and thrust the sword forward, sending a spray of blood into the air and finally watching those sullen eyes widen in sheer and utter agony.

* * *

Such things were always prone to send Kage into a waking bloom. Resting against a cold wall, his uniform pulling tightly around his throat and the jingle of chain his alarm, Kage could barely capture his breath. He had fallen asleep in the most unlikely place. Under the gaze of a frozen angel, he finally exhaled the foul taste in his mouth and realized he had vomited. Such were the pleasures of his sleep. His dreams were as comforting as a disemboweling at noon's leisure.  
  
Dragging his tired form to his feet, the mighty and pathetic general wiped his lips, those dry and parched betrayers, and pressed his back against the cold stone. Slumber had long since betrayed him and falling under the countenance of his bitter foe was disturbing at best. Still clutching his sword in hand, his peat green eyes glowed in the stillness of the room as he looked upon the statue; a frozen and cold thing defying its very nature. Had it been lower, he would have spit at it, for he loathed and hated the beautiful face and frail body so much more than his own. Passing silent judgment, he muttered the first insanity which came to him.  
  
"If you would only open those eyes for a second, that I could run my sword between them."  
  
Standing full to the statue, an eerie light bathed both, but only truly illuminated one. Yamito's pallid face shone even in this darkness. A face so beautiful that it could turn the very moon in its heaven was held still, frigid to the very world around him. His body, the very essence of irony as a vessel of such power yet fallen to the simplest ailment, lay stretched outright and held by unknown means. To his fury, Kage stood and stared at him. The mortem child of Mars opened before him, baring no shame, and served as the twilight of his pathetic existence.  
  
"For such power to be wasted on you is an insult to my very being. You, the illicit lover of our prince, buried your destiny under fear and cowardice." Kage would say, speaking such vicious words yet not able to show true inflection. Every moment he forced himself to hate Yamito, but truth could not hide behind blame.  
  
Above this angel, Kage hated himself.  
  
"This is not the place I would have expected you, my sweet general," a voice said. It interrupted his hue of hatred and Kage drained. Even so, Eve moved right behind him, her steps forever eluded to the silence of flesh. Placing her arms around him, her eyes moved lustfully to the frozen angel as well, absolutely delighted at the radiance of Kage's flared temperament. "A lie. Would not the royal court of Earth wish to know of their most desired prince?"  
  
Time held no passing on anger's wake and Kage's eyes darkened with the semblance of nightfall, failing at first then overcome by a curtain of black finality. Once more his foe was held in higher rank, a sin which tore a piece of Kage's heart away each time he looked away. Harshly stepping from under the warm embrace of Eve, he stepped towards Yamito and glared up at him, finding it so convenient to hate him so. "A delayed truth. The moment his beautiful eyes open, Yamito will die." He turned and faced her, all of his rage coursing over him as whitened lightning. Even though his energy was great, each arc of energy fell benign on a sightless force around Yamito.  
  
Nothing beyond cosmic kisses would remove the child from its womb.  
  
Eve stayed longer on Yamito than her general, but soon smiled that sweet, dangerous smile as she stepped forward again and pressed herself into Kage, running godly hands across him and speaking in cherry tones. "Would not you rather to sleep in sheets of silk and skin, my love? My general deserves the most beautiful lavishes and the kiss of a goddess over his troubled brow."  
  
Almost instantly, Eve was floating beyond his stroke, her face slightly stunned but her eyes flaring with interest. The sword that bore the power of Jupiter poised itself at the end of the strike, gleaming with a sad descent of a higher purpose. Kage's eyes were shaded but his lips were pressed. Nothing was as foul as her touch and the feel of even the softest soil still soaked the skin black. When Kage spoke, it was through a snarl which only found rest through the bars of the fiercest game.  
  
"Don't ever speak such filth to me again. My oath was given, but don't mistake yourself. I only serve you until you give them to me. I would never soil myself with you, the shell of my hated enemy. The only reason I don't split you down the middle is only you can give me what I want."  
  
As Kage's eyes moved upon her, she was smitten by the fierce inferno within them. He hated with such innocence that a small part of her inside shivered with delight. It was the reason he had been chosen; this capacity for such unbridled odium. Though her true beloved lingered above them both like a mourning painting, she could not hide her attraction for him.  
  
"Go now into the city. Bring me the trodden, wailing masses that I may gain the power I need to give you the gift you desire. Serve me, my dearest general."  
  
Without another moment lingered, Kage slung his sword over his shoulder and disappeared into a burst of heretic lightning. He would do as she asked, for the only thing in his mind was those two great shadows pierced deep into his mind like spears. It was they who possessed him now, for nothing else could sway him like the prospect of the water of revenge on his lips. Where love and hate embraced, revenge consumed.  
  
Eve, looking back upon her beloved, hugged herself lightly and quivered with thoughts of him. This human, tempered in flames and doused in stone, was the whole purpose in her mind. All things revolved around him, even the heavens and the earths. For this, she smiled and could barely contain herself.  
  
"And soon, the most loved and feared nemesis, I will have you as well." 


	4. The Reluctant Smile

Chapter Four – The Reluctant Smile  
  
"I had no idea," Usagi whispered, her voice lacking any true breath or potency. She had felt the anger drain from her as Kurai told her of Kage, of his transformation from a happy boy into the foul, dissonant person that she knew. It became very easy to see why he was so harsh. Usagi's heart had tugged when Kurai had told them of finding Kage and his sister, both lying in a swirl of their family blood and both seemingly void of life. The loss of her brother would be dire to her, she imagined, and she couldn't begin to understand just how disastrous the loss was to him.  
  
The very thought of losing Shingo made her shiver and knit her hands.  
  
"Kage was never the same," Kurai continued, "and he slowly started becoming more distant. He started smoking, picking fights with anybody who crossed him badly and instigated a very heated quarrel with Yamito."  
  
The name was enough to snap Usagi's attention and her eyes fell on him like prey. "Yamito?"  
  
Kurai nodded, though obviously waning in his attempts to stay objective in his emotions about this. His glasses had fallen from his nose into a waiting hand and he was rubbing the bridge of his nose, his eyes seeming much older than usual. Though Usagi's thoughts paraded around Kage's tragedy and the very essence of the name Yamito, she found Kurai to be an unspoken hero in their lives.  
  
"Kage is really jealous of Yamito," Suteki said, killing the silence which had gripped him since the discussion began. He too seemed very different now. The usual luster of his smile was jaded, though not of fault of his newly found human interests. History was the greatest killer of smiles. The trials contained in their past lives were bitter and cold and each of them seemed bound by this forsaken destiny which had the ability to follow through time and space. Suteki seemed a bit weary. "Everyone saw Yamito's power. I hate to admit it, but Yamito was a lot stronger than even Ryu. No one knew why. Well, Kage got this crazy idea that Yamito had the ability to end the entire war on our world; to take out all of the Priests and even Anubis. He started blaming Yamito for the death of his sister, I think."  
  
"However, Yamito feared that part of himself," Kurai added.  
  
"With good reason." Haruka added even further.  
  
Kurai could only nod, his eyes cast onto the floor with unnatural reverence. Ami was barely keeping her seat, staring at him with placid eyes and a beating heart. How hard it was to be the voice box of a race and the only rational center for investigation. Her counterpart, but even more so her lover, had taken the difficult task of weaving all of their lives together in an attempt to bring order to the chaos. Sadly, she watched it take its toll on him with each passing word. "Kage absconded from his obligation to us, moving more as a separate entity in searching out the killers of his sister. Though he resented Yamito, he truly detested the three who killed Yamamori Mika," Kurai said, his eyes oddly moving up onto Haruka and Michiru.  
  
"Three?" Usagi asked.  
  
Kurai once more nodded, his eyes staying long on the two girls. "Yes. Senso was but the bait. It was the two Legendary Scion of Uranus and Neptune who performed the deed."  
  
Haruka and Michiru mirrored the room as they stared, wide-eyed and credulous at the history which soon caught up with them. Kage's dire need for competition with Haruka suddenly became more viable and even his practice of have very jagged and almost offensive conversations with Michiru came to light. The looks he would steal at Haruka took on an entirely new shade, one of hidden hatred and misplaced compensation. They had merely dismissed it as part of his personality, but now they had tales of woe to contribute to his personality.  
  
Haruka grimaced and furrowed her eyebrows in a moment of tribute to her rival.  
  
Kurai watched their reactions with great interest, though oddly smiled when they reacted in the ways which they did. "How perverse that he would endear himself to the two counterparts of those he hates the most. Yet, this leads me to deduct the reasoning behind Kage's dissent to Eve's service."  
  
The others looked to him.  
  
"I believe Eve has brought the Legendary Scion here to act as incentive for Kage to do as he is doing. Senso is no more, yet Kage still yearns for his revenge. Since Yamito is..." Kurai continued, though winced at his own words and frowned, looking down to the glasses in his hands. "It seems the only logical conclusion."  
  
Usagi was being tossed around like a leaf in a churning river. Her emotions ran wild, from the deep grief she felt for Kage to the mild hope at his reasons and even the spikes of aspiration with every spoken name of her illicit beloved. Rei's broken face accompanied the name in each instance, making her feel guilt and remorse as well. A great void in her heart for Mamoru was fought over, though hope had also taken residence and was growing. There was so much going on that she barely had time to notice when the night sky outside was lit by a massive red glow.  
  
Each of them turned, their faces stained by the red light. At first it was eerie, but as reds faded into orange and then to black, they all stood on edge.  
  
"Fire!"

* * *

Downtown Tokyo was ablaze with the life he had once lost. Buildings were crackling and cracking, weaning under the intense strain of their own weight. A few had already come down, but there were endless others to choose from. Kage found that he could barely focus long enough to do so. Each building looked so wrong, so heretic. Unbroken glass, reflective sidings, concourse lines and even the proud profile of each building disgusted him, making him long to see the carnage of his old world. Piles of rubble were slowly changing the world back into what he knew and he began looking through them for her.  
  
"General, the senshi of this world will be here. You must leave and see to it our forces obtain their goal," one of Eve's acolytes said, eagerly standing by Kage's side and watching him look into a pile of debris.  
  
He was ignoring her. With his celestial blade slung in his shoulder, Kage tossed a rather large metal beam aside and peered under it, his face concentrated at the task at hand. Upon finding nothing but twisted metal and trash, he stood straight and ran his hair back with his hand. "Huh, nothing. I was sure I saw something here before." Turning to the acolyte, his brow lowered and he snorted, as if her very presence was a sin. "I don't need some thing telling me what I need to do. She wants an army? Then go get one! Leave before I look inside you next."  
  
The acolyte stepped back a moment, genuinely intimidated by him, and quickly bowed out of some lewd respect for him. He snorted loudly. In a gust of wind, she was gone and Kage turned to an untouched street, his face still brewing a sour look and his hand shifting across his sword.  
  
The night was harboring the masses from any massive loss. Many of the buildings were empty, though that fact was lost on Kage as he stared up at each one and tapped his neck with his blade. All he saw was laughing faces in each window, embracing lovers across the balconies. Each and every plane of glass reflected a warm mood and it began to stir a great rage in him. All buildings, large or small, began the life that he was denied.  
  
The crescent wave of energy he snapped from his sword ripped a great canyon across the road and impacted into the building with a great thunder. As the night was lit with a great red fireball once more, the building came crashing down in a heap of smoke and debris, hindering all sight for the moments it took for the dust to sleep around him.  
  
As it did, seven figures appeared around him in a wide circle. They all kept a very wide berth, but each was facing him through the failing smoke.  
  
"Go away. I'm busy," Kage said candidly and used the leg of his hakama to wipe the dust from his sword. Sailor Moon was the first to step a bit closer and purify through the dust, her face having an unnatural sense of pity for him. Soon each of the senshi, but also Kurai and Suteki, were visible through in the night air. Kage sighed heavily and put his eyes on Sailor Moon, though obviously not regarding her seriously as a threat. "You shouldn't bring humans to a fight. They might get hurt."  
  
Suteki's face was unnaturally focused. "What are you doing, Kage?! Have you gone bonkers?"  
  
"How's human life," Kage replied, turning his eyes to Suteki with an almost grin on his face, "Hitoshi?"  
  
Suteki was beside himself and stared with an open mouth. While the others were quite confused with why Kage had called him that, Sailor Moon blinked, hearing Yamito call Suteki that name as well. Suteki was instantly fuming and hurling a shaking fist at Kage, though from a safe distance away. "You promised! You promised you'd never say my name again!"  
  
What an interlude. The little spat came at the most bizarre time but Suteki was instantly ready to start the next world war over such a sin. Sailor Moon had always considered Suteki to be a very strange name, but he was, after all, from a different world and prone to the rules of that place, not theirs. However, upon hearing that Suteki's real name was Hitoshi, she felt a bit put off by how fierce he was reacting to it. It wasn't until Kage spoke again that she felt the reality of the situation come down on her like a falling tree.  
  
"Only Yamito can use it, right? Fuck you all. I'm tired of living in his shadow and trying to get by on second class power and ability. Jupiter gave me the great equalizer," he snarled and held out his sword with great fervor, "and I'll show you how!" The blade of Jupiter began to glow very brightly and electricity coursed over the metal like a living sun. The amount of energy focused onto that blade was incredible and each of the Sailor senshi looked upon Kage with a new level of understanding of his intent.  
  
"Kage!" Sailor Uranus hollered, but he couldn't hear her.  
  
As the ground began to shake and a wind began to blow, they all witnessed that this sword was something very anomalous as far as the Scion had come. None of the others possessed such a weapon and it truly seemed celestial in its origin. Kurai and Suteki were blown aside by the wind, helpless as Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus were both barely able to stay standing.  
  
It was a great buildup.  
  
"I'll turn this city back to the way it was! I'll find her in the rubble and everything will be fine! Then even Yamito won't be able to stop me!" Kage bellowed and began laughing. His laugh was something which ran cold across the ears of those who could hear him and Sailor Moon braved the wind to look upon him; upon the maddened glow of light which had constricted around him from that sword.  
  
At once, she felt that Kage was no longer able to see well. The resonating laugh which bled in her ears frightened her and warned her. Normally cool and contained, Kage seemed now was wild and unpredictable as the lightning which was swarming over his sword and body, threatening to consume him in a fiery blaze more brilliant than a thousand destroyed buildings.  
  
Then, she saw someone.  
  
So did Kage.  
  
His was barely able to see the figure walking towards him through the light. Though distant, the figure slowly was getting closer and seemed to have no fear of the energy which was embracing him. Though embittered to the scene around him, Kage's eyes suddenly shallowed and his heart forgot to pump. The girl walking towards him looked at him with those green eyes; green eyes holding the capacity to care for him no matter what happened. The fearlessness of her stride betrayed her to him and his hands loosened across his sword, forcing the light and lightning to weaken some. Though he was weak and his jaw seemed locked tight, Kage was barely able to breath out her name.  
  
"Mika?"  
  
As much as the name hurt her and made her smile, Makoto stepped through the torrent of energy and rage to stand before him, unaltered and unafraid. Though she did smile, her smile felt plastic and weak in the wake of his great scripture and worship of the name. A human was more able to defeat this foe than a thousand senshi.  
  
His was such a delicate anger.  
  
Staring up at him, she felt the energy dousing even more and the look in his eyes was heart-wrenching. A face that was able to show so much hate was now broken, open to the realm that the single name brought upon him. Even as he held tightly to the grand sword and still wielded its great power, she could see that all of the malicious rage had seeped out of him, which was truly a testament to how much he had cared for his sister. His life had been dedicated to revenge, but a name tamed him. Makoto almost felt a little guilty for not being Mika. She soon set forth to heal him.  
  
"It's me, Kage. It's Makoto. I have something of yours and I want to give it back to you," she said, reaching her hand across her nape of her neck and letting out a calm breath. Even in his most languid state, she felt at ease holding to the locket around her neck. With nimble fingers, she opened the locket and held it out for him to see, though she didn't remove it from her neck just yet.  
  
She wanted to keep him close to her, if only for a moment longer.  
  
"Here is Mika, Kage. She's been waiting for you to come back."  
  
The others were speechless as they watched her, facing him down in her human state. Even as senshi, they were reluctant to confront him, but she was effortlessly keeping him under control just by standing in front of him. His anger had been subdued by valor.  
  
"Mika..." Kage said again, one hand tearing away from his sword to reach out for the locket. His heart began beating each moment he got closer to it.  
  
While his face was widely showing his every thought, Makoto's own heart was beating faster. Was she getting through to him finally? Would he see that he did have something for him in this world? Would he see the girl behind the locket? A small part of her defied these ideas and scorned her for wanting it. She would be betrayed and hurt, for nothing as perfect as earned love could ever exist for someone as tragic as she. Yet, she waited for him to come to her.  
  
She saw the very moment the madness took him again.  
  
"You..." he muttered, his eyes shifting from the locket to her once more, though now they were laced with the same anger and traps which had defined him to her. Perhaps what frightened her more, however, was that this anger seemed to morph, changing into something new. It was an unsure anger, a lashing anger that seemed so weak in her mind. The moment before he reacted to her a second time, she saw that his anger towards her was turning into a shade of fear.  
  
"Makoto!" Sailor Moon yelled, watching the girl sent flying away from Kage by a flash of light. Makoto hit the ground on her stomach, a pain ringing through her, and she coughed, tasting a warm sting of blood in her mouth. As three of the Sailor senshi fell around her and guarded her, Sailor Moon turned to help her and bled her concern through wide eyes.  
  
Makoto, against all of her character, looked away from everyone, even Kage, and stared at the ground with nearly fallen eyes.  
  
Betrayed again.  
  
As Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune cautiously approached Kage, they marveled at the empty look on his face. He stood staring at Makoto, his eyes still wide with a sort of forlorn fear that defied description and harnessed hope. He was acting so strangely now that both stopped their advances, but continued to call out to him and try and talk to him.  
  
Kage was in a flurry of confusion and anger. It was like nothing he had even felt before and it was something that broke all of his standard methods of control. Feeling unsure and weak, he stepped back away from them all, his hand barely able to keep his sword in hand, and his lips moving, as if in speech. The others were equally confused by this, and then absolutely gasped as he simply disappeared in a blast of lightning. For having spent the night confronting Kage, they were aghast at just how benign his exit had been.  
  
Sailor Moon saw no such state. Holding Makoto, she felt flustered at just how pathetic she looked. Makoto's hand was tight around the locket, but her eyes were loose and cast at nothing on the ground. Her face was placid but her lips were clenched together over a false, fearing smile. Even with her friends around her, Makoto felt alone at the moment.  
  
"I can't help him, Usagi. I tried, but there's too much hate now. He even hates me, too," she said, just loud enough for Sailor Moon to hear. Sailor Moon watched as tears built in her eyes, but they would not fall. Makoto was frustrated and hurt and alone, but Sailor Moon just held her a little tighter and forced herself to smile just a little bit.  
  
"Don't give up, okay? You're the only one who Kage has ever looked at like that, Mako-chan. You stopped him from destroying more of the city. I think..." Sailor Moon said with a bitter laugh and wiped a few tears from her cheeks, "I think Kage can only hate you because only you can love him. I think he's afraid of you."  
  
Makoto blinked a few times but soon looked up to her, wiping a few tears from her eye with the palm of her hand. Seeing Sailor Moon's face made Makoto feel grades better and she laughed softly also, nodding and holding her hand tightly. "Thanks, Usagi-chan."  
  
Sailor Moon couldn't help but hug her softly and smile. "I won't give up on him if you won't."

* * *

> Kage found no solace in the chamber, no area for his hate to transcend that fear he felt just moment earlier. He knelt, leaning forward on his sword as it impaled the ground before Yamito, his eyes fallen desperately across the ground and his mouth hanging open in longing breath. He had no idea what had happened, for he truly saw his sister as that Sailor senshi approached. The feelings he had felt when she was near were very real, but only when he had seen her for who she truly was did he force himself to revile at her and lash out.  
  
Why?  
  
He couldn't answer the question and pressed his eyes shut, grinding his teeth as he agonized over something he couldn't explain.  
  
"Don't fucking touch me..."  
  
Eve, who had entered upon surprise of his presence, recoiled her hand at the threat and blinked, unable to see his face but fully able to feel his mood. Her eyes uneasily moved up to Yamito's face and she grimaced. She could see the field that had protected him had finally dissipated, yet she could make no moves on him until this unstable Scion was gone. So, she dedicated her time once reserved for lustful satisfaction to soothe her ailing general. "What troubles you, my love?"  
  
Kage shuddered a bit, the muscles in his back quivering without cause and he coughed loudly, feeling as if he were choking on his own breath. How weak he felt. Weakness had borne into him a moment's lapse of judgment. "I couldn't defeat the senshi. I have enough power...why can't I win?" he asked, more to himself than anyone else.  
  
Eve looked wearily at the blade stuck in the ground before him, the blade he leaned on so heavily. It was the only mark for which she held the last Scion with any fear, and she saw a great opportunity to secure her dominance.  
  
With soothing tones and a near brush of her body, she knelt next to him and smiled a very devious smile, almost vicious in its sincerity. "Your past troubles you, my love. You attachment to the guardian who betrayed you," she said, running delicate fingers across the blade. His eyes didn't follow, but he felt the resonance within his hands. Her touch didn't seem so alien to his blade, but his skin crawled at her proximity.  
  
She did have a point. Forsaking his planet had left him with only one thorn; his sword. It still held the symbol of Jupiter on it and the scar on his shoulder ached from it. His power focused through it, but she came when he was using it. The one source of power which he knew equalized his deficiency in energy also came at a price; conscience.  
  
Without it, he would have no connection to the one he feared so much.  
  
When Kage abruptly stood, Eve blinked and watched him, seeing the confidence laden on him once more. He stared up at Yamito with renewed hope. "I don't need the power to win. All I need is myself," he snorted and turned away, walking towards the exit with no second thought. The sword was left impaled in the ground before Yamito; a tombstone for this grave of his. Kage wouldn't need it anymore.  
  
Eve laughed softly to herself, her eyes moving up to Yamito as well. In mere moments, she would have something which aroused her in such a way that even Anubis quiver inside of her. The buried god may have been her power and birth, but she felt the breath of life and the burn of lust. Whatever Yamito had become, she wanted it. She wanted him.  
  
Unable to control herself anymore, she stood and reached towards his face, reveling in the sensations that would come when she was able to feel his skin. The young man was very handsome and very powerful. It was no wonder not only the Sailor senshi of Mars loved him deeply, but also the Moon Princess herself. So much contention over one person.  
  
She almost felt sorry for her little puppet in her chambers.  
  
Fury had no gage as an arc of lightning burned her hand. The face of Yamito laid only breaths away but her hand was denied, prevented by a web of electricity which stemmed from the sword impaled in the floor. Eve stared at it, then quickly looked to the exit to find Kage lingering, though not looking back into the room. She was fuming with anger, but she could find no words to assault him.  
  
She received only a laugh and a wagging finger, berating her for her lust. "Don't think I couldn't see your intentions. You asked me to give up my sword," he said almost in pleasure, and soon left her with his parting words. "No one touches Yamito unless I say so."  
  
He left her to her enraged screaming.


	5. The Human Syndrome

Chapter Five – The Human Syndrome

The sunniest day had a way of defeating memory or mood. When the sun beat down on the grass and the wind blew softly through waves of blonde hair, not even the Apocalypse could spread a gloomy cloud onto the warm, blossoming ground. Even with the sparse gathering of people littered about the stands in convalescent form, bellowing out cheers or waving their vibrant banners, some people always felt alone or separate. It wasn't as much the status of their smile or the thickness of their name, but more a matter of the what and who of the day.

At the moment, Usagi felt a little more alone than usual.

She had been feeling this way for a long time now and it didn't seem to be getting any better. While Tokyo was in the middle of being repaired from Kage's last assault, Usagi felt no connection to the city she strived so hard to protect. When would the reconstruction of her heart come? In the absence of her lover, the truth behind her desire and the reality of her enemy, she felt only the heavy sigh which shifted her cheeks across her palms and left her eyes staring aimlessly over the soccer field. It had been a few weeks since the last attack, but that only meant the next one would come soon, she thought. The most vicious wound always seemed to come right after the moment of relief. She felt that she couldn't fully let her guard down until everything she had and wanted was back in her hand.

"Usagi-chan? You don't look like you're having a good time," Minako said, moving back up to her friend on the stands from the side of the field.

Usagi was finally broken of her tedium and she looked to Minako with a smile. "I'm sorry. I was just thinking. I really am having a good time. Suteki's as good at soccer as you are at volleyball, huh?" she replied and looked out onto the field for the bounding mop of blonde hair held back by a bandana.

Minako grinned, turning back around to look out onto the field for him as well. There was no enemy, no trial or vendetta that could weigh down the smile she harbored when looking at him; her beloved Suteki. The way he moved around the field made her heart flutter and she couldn't hold back the cheer when he spun around an opponent, skillfully wielding a soccer ball, and kicking it past the goalie for a score. The crowd cheered, the girls swooned and Suteki celebrated, running along the sideline with his arms in the air until reaching a place perpendicular to Minako. Then, he stopped, pointed both hands towards this girl he adored so greatly, and winked. It was his standard celebration. Soon enough, they were in play once more.

This made Minako let out a sigh much different than Usagi's; a light, blissful sigh that encored her smile. With a glance back to Usagi, she giggled a bit and sat down; a girl in the limelight and impervious to all the jealous glares she received. "It's almost like a dream. I can't believe he's really human now," she said, watching him a bit longer.

Usagi's smile faded a bit, looking back him as well. She knew of one Scion who wasn't human and another who never would be. It was hard to accept the fact that there had been no strings attached to Suteki's and Kurai's reversion to humanity. It was like a free gift given by someone who seemed so malicious and malcontent that Usagi had expected something else to come along with them. However, she couldn't deny the fact that Setsuna had told her that they would never again be empowered as they had been before. They would remain human the rest of their lives.

"What are you thinking about?"

Usagi blinked, looking to Minako once more and finding a hue of concern across her face. "What?"

"You've been sitting up here for two periods just staring. There's so much going on right now that I'm curious as to which gloomy reason you're frowning over."

"Sorry. I guess I'm thinking about a lot of things," Usagi replied once more and tried to daunt her with an ill-conceived smile. The roaring of the crowd and the announcer's praises did little to invade their small world, but Usagi's brow kept falling further and further. "I hope we find Mamoru soon."

Minako's smile was a bit more elated as she slid closer to Usagi and leaned against her a bit, giving her a level of human contact which was needed to soothe a souring soul. "Setsuna said he was still alive, so I'm sure we'll be able to find him. Eve hasn't tried to use him against us so we can guess that she hasn't been able to change him, right? Maybe he's trying to get back to you right now and only that jerk Kage is keeping him there."

Though her intentions had been good, the things she said didn't actually help any. Usagi was reminded not only that Mamoru was in the hands of the enemy, but also under the mercy of a very unstable Scion. Her spirits fell again. Minako watched her and tried to work her way out of her own words, candidly raising a finger to assure her point. "I mean, he's a jerk and all but he did free Suteki and Kurai, right? Maybe he's actually being nice to Mamoru or something! I'm sure everything will be okay!" she continued, trying to laugh it off and lighten her friend's mood. Minako wasn't very good at conversation.

It was about this time that Suteki came bouncing up the stands to them, breathing a bit heavily and basted with a bit of sweat. Using a wristband on his arm, he wiped his brow and beamed, gloriously showing the pride he felt at the four goals he scored. "Oh yes, everyone knows I'm the best soccer guy around. You ladies know it, don't you?" he called, pointing to a group of girls that had been watching him the entire time. The girls giggled wildly and turned into a flutter of flirting, flaunting and waving. Suteki marveled at his charisma only as much as he did his athletic accomplishments.

Minako scowled in the direction of the girls and then glared at Suteki, who was oblivious as he was leaning down poking Usagi in the cheek. "Hey, Usagi-chan, why so glum? Didn't you see the, like, six goals I scored?"

Usagi pushed his hand away and looked up at him blandly. "The scoreboard says your team only scored five points."

Not to be daunted by the details, Suteki waved his hand through the air like clearing out a foul stench, endless enamored by his own greatness and eager to make everyone else see things his way. "Tch, I can't be blamed for the poor scorekeeping. Besides, the bottom line is that the other team only scored one point. Do you know what that's called? That's called a victory!" he retorted, flashing her the victory sign with his fingers.

She couldn't help it. Suteki always had a way of making her smile and forget her troubles. With a light-hearted smile, Usagi laughed a bit and felt much better, elated that Suteki was given the chance to be this light and human. Though he had always been something of a joker, it was only after Kage severed his ring that she truly saw sincerity in his antics. There was no underlying reservation to him now. He was pure, unaltered joy.

Suteki, flapping his shirt away from his body to try and cool down, deviously eyed Minako a moment and grinned. "I gotta go hit the showers. Wanna come?" Usagi's admiration of his purity was stinted as Minako blushed, infuriated that he would say such a thing out loud but even more so that she couldn't accept.

"Baka...what kind of girl do you think I am?"

"Tch, whatever. Hey, Usagi, how about you..." he said but was cut short in his further proposition. Usagi was staring at him blandly and Minako was glaring daggers at him.

Laughing sheepishly, Suteki took a step backwards down the stands and rubbed his head, obviously enlightened that asking Usagi right in front of Minako probably wasn't the best idea.

Soon enough, Usagi was watching Minako chase Suteki around the soccer field, howling threats at him and throwing soccer balls. It was nothing new for them and she had come to expect the idle sexual offers from Suteki. Still, her mind was at a different place now and she could find herself long enough to laugh at the two reveling in their humanity.

* * *

Makoto wasn't feeling particularly humane at the moment. She had taken on the tones of her past as her face dwelled on the fact that her life was never as cheery or bright as she wanted it to be. Fate seemed to have the same sick sense of humor when it came to her, much as it seemed to have when it came to Kage. It could have been so perfect; she and Kage. There were so many things she saw in herself as she looked at him, yet amazed at the ways they differed just as much. The plight that he had suffered through was the kind of thing that storybooks gave to the princess willing to tame the fires of the heart, but there were no quick remedies for her to use to douse him; no automatic love she could have just by closing her eyes.

Maybe, she thought, she wasn't supposed to be with him.

Heaven knew that all signs were pointing that way. He was so stubborn and egotistic that she clenched her fist around the railing she had been leaning on over the past two hours. Oddly, the metal wasn't as cold as she thought it would be and realized her hand had warmed it. She had been holding it the entire time, though she could hardly remember when she had grabbed on.

Strange, but irrelevant.

With her head drooping once more, she sighed. Resting her chin on her fingers, she would stare out at the city from atop the school for as long as it took to clear her mind of things. Usagi swore to her that they wouldn't give up on Kage, but what was the point? It wasn't as if they were in love or anything. Kage all but hated Makoto and took every opportunity to remind her of it. Her chest still hurt from their last encounter. It was the times of reflection that forced her to doubt her ability to ever fall in love.

"Everyone has gone home, you know. You're the only one left."

The voice startled her, but she found the tones soothing and familiar. Turning, Makoto found Haruka and Michiru lingering in the doorway of the roof access, both glowing in their singularly beautiful existence together. They were so spectacular together that Makoto longed for that kind of connection with someone; a perfect love to consume her. How she longed to be that beautiful with someone. "Yah, I was just thinking. I didn't want to go home just yet," she replied, looking back over the city with a mask to hide her troubled mind.

Haruka idly slipped her hands in her pocket, following a soft, majestic Michiru towards the solitude of the girl. Michiru leaned against the rail next to Makoto, twining her fingers together delicately as she looked out over the city as well. Haruka stayed aloft, joining them both in silent praise for their prize.

Michiru's eyes soon wandered to the girl, her smile not faded by the alignment of things. What she saw was a girl so utterly engrossed that she tore herself to pieces in pity. Makoto was the epitome of balance; a girl teetering on the state of womanhood while being both strong and delicate at the same time. It was no wonder she was able to hurt as she did. "What you did the other day was wonderful. I don't think I've ever quite seen that look on his face before."

Makoto blinked, somewhat oblivious to her subject, though not totally unaware of whom she meant. Haruka smirked, looking down at her as well while completing the second front. "You're our best shot at beating him, you know. You put him off balance. We can use that."

"Who..." Makoto began but didn't allow herself to play dumb anymore. Seeing as they both were completely serious and obviously plotting a solid strategy to defeat the general of Eve's army, she felt even worse and slouched once more, staring over the endless blur of the city. "I guess so."

"You should sound happier, Makoto. In the entire time that I've know Kage, I've never been able to exploit any weakness in him. He's an unforgiving machine that is far more analytical than we give him credit for. But, if you're around, he makes mistakes and loses focus. That's our opportune moment to strike and put him down," Haruka continued, looking off into the city as candidly as they all did. Makoto winced at each point the truth brought, her heart wrenching in her chest at the prospect of being the means at which they are able to stop Kage.

She didn't want to be the reason they could hurt him more.

She wanted to be the reason no one ever hurt him again.

Michiru was watching her out of the corner of her eye, an idle smile resting on her face. Their presence was far more devious than Makoto realized and Michiru lulled a bit to the side. "It seems Eve's strength lies in her general and, if we can take away that strength, then all we have to do is..."

"I don't want to..."

Both Haruka and Michiru stopped and watched her, seeing her face buried in her arms and her body wilting against the weight of it all. Though neither of them spoke, they both conducted the moment with the skill of a dream; leaving Makoto to wallow in her thoughts until she finally looked up to Michiru with tired eyes. "I'm sorry. I just keep thinking about how painful Kage's life has been and all of the bad things that has happened to him," she said, feeling the cool locket between her fingers. "I guess there's no way to save him anymore, right? We just have to stop him like any other enemy."

Both Haruka and Michiru looked at each other, silently conversing with eyes and faces. It was obvious they had planned this small incursion and were taking it places, even if Makoto didn't see it.

Michiru remained casual in her voice and began to dangle the strings all around Makoto. "You don't sound very sure of yourself."

"It's almost like you don't want to stop him," Haruka added.

Makoto was feeling even more horrible now, feeling like a stupid girl unable to take a hint or see things clearly. Now two people she admired were grilling her over this stupid little crush and it only made her feel a thousand times worse. That guilt was showing in her shaky voice. "I...have to. It's the only way to help everyone."

"Even Kage?" Makoto looked up at Haruka with confusion stirring on her brow. They had been leading her one way the entire time, but then only to throw her aside for concern over their enemy? Haruka's face didn't daunt in the slightest. "Are you falling in love with Kage, Makoto?"

The question hit her like a slap in the face. Though it was obvious for anyone, especially Haruka, to see that Makoto flustered around him and obviously looked upon him as more than an ally, it had never been put out in the open. The others had fallen in suit, but Kage had never given Makoto an inch. With so much discord, it was a wonder Makoto could even answer the question. "I don't know. I can't think straight whenever I try. Maybe I'm just trying to fit in like the others," she replied, a bit bitterly, and tried to look as mature as she could while trying not to blush. "Not like it would ever work anyway. Kage is..."

"Someone who needs love more than anyone," Michiru interrupted. Makoto looked to her with unsure eyes, but it was the purity of Michiru's smile that made this move along like a rock-less river. "In the short time we were with Kage, Haruka and I both came to understand him a little. Even though he apparently hates the Scion of Neptune and Uranus, I can honestly say that we may be the only friends that he has." Michiru held no interpretation to her smile, for she felt every word in the truest sense of its meaning. To call anyone friend was a title of earning and merit when it came from these two senshi.

Haruka was in complete agreement and finally leaning against the railing as well, though it firmly set into her hip and she faced away from the city. Her eyes were still locked on Makoto. "I've come to respect Kage, even though he hardly wins any personality trophies." The remark made Makoto snicker abruptly and it only brought a warm smile on Haruka's face. It was lovely to see a smile across Makoto's face. Lately, she hadn't had much reason to smile but Haruka was set on changing that. "The fact is Kage is high-maintenance. He's egotistical, stubborn and completely determined to get the revenge which keeps him going. You shouldn't fault him for it. Kage was raised in many of the older ways of Japan," she said, almost laughing a little bit at his little quirks. Makoto was silent, trying to see what they were getting at. Haruka mused to herself a moment, if only as a fond memory of him. "His flower arrangements could win prizes."

Makoto blinked, looking at Haruka with an awed sense of disbelief. Kage doing flower arranging? Was that a joke? She knew that some samurai in the older days used to take part in the practice but she could hardly imagine Kage sitting around a flower pot and moving flowers around for aesthetic beauty. It was beyond belief.

"The point is, Makoto, that we didn't earn his trust by holding out our hand. It was more like..."

"Pinning him down, punching him senseless, taping his mouth shut and prying his hand away," Haruka finished for Michiru. The image made Makoto express a very unusual look on her face, but she was starting to see their point. Haruka clarified it for her completely. "If you want this love, Makoto, you can't wait for it to happen like in one of your novels. Love never comes as you like it, but always how you make it. If you think a soft smile and a handkerchief will make him come running, you'll be waiting forever. You have to win his affections. With Kage, that means you have to be pretty vicious about it too." That little fact actually made Haruka grin, seeing how Makoto was always a little soft-spoken when it came to boys she liked and a bit passive. It was interesting to see the contrast with her personality.

Makoto was now in more of a fury about this than before, mostly because she was actually trying to understand what they meant about being vicious to Kage. She did see a harsh fact, however; the love Makoto always imagined was something that wouldn't happen. There were no princes anymore, although it was ironic that the literal truth of that was to the contrary. She couldn't stand to simply let Kage be in misery any more, but she was afraid to try and do what they were saying. It was an awesome dilemma for her.

But she felt that if she were able to win over this Scion, it would be something more precious than a thousand dreams or hopes. Maybe a love earned through hardship was that much more valuable than one so easily taken and thrown away.

"Thanks for helping me figure this out. I think I know what you're saying. If Kage only has two friends, then he couldn't have better ones," Makoto said, smiling sincerely since seeing him again. Haruka and Michiru looked at each once more and then both looked out over the city again, as if nothing had happened.

Haruka smirked. "Who said we were helping? We just came to figure out a way to beat him."


	6. Sympathy by Vote & Malicious by Design

**Chapter Six – Sympathy By Vote, Malicious By Design**

With the movement of a petal to the left, the shifting of a long, bare stem forward and the idleness of a breath blown over the bunch to give it that natural look, the flowers finally met with some kind of acknowledgement from their master, if only a small moment of recompense for their simplistic beauty and pure, unaltered design. The room, hollowed and dimly lit, really lacked the attributes to accent his current creation, but Kage couldn't argue with the decorum. The other flowers, spoiled and rotten shadows of their former glory, were strewn about the room, cast aside by Kage as things not worthy of his art and too troublesome to even give a moment's notice. They bled, bruised and fractured far too easily for him to use; their splintered stems, opened petals and benign thorns all thrown as compost around the room. The only thing that mattered to him now was the flowers being delicately groomed under his steady hand. He wooed them as lovers, coaxing them into their proper place and admiring their beauty.

Flowers, he thought, were the only thing left in the world that could persevere. Anything else was just refuse.

* * *

When Eve had finally grown impatient enough, she undertook the task of sending for her general herself. Eight acolytes had gone and not returned, planting a small seed of doubt in her mind of her general's state of mind. As she walked, strolling down the endless hallways of the bleak palace created by her predecessor and entombed master, her mind was torn by the two impending problems with her reign. The first was the Sailor senshi. They seemed ill-equipped to deal with the problems facing humanity. She had the same desires they did; to bring about peace and prosperity to all of the world's citizens. However, they seemed unable to grasp the concept of dominant will. They left the choices to the masses and pointlessly hoped that humanity's good would outweigh and defeat humanity's bad.

It was a tactic she saw as frivolous.

However, they had also grown in power since their attacks on Anubis's Priests. Some force that even humbled her master had granted them this new power. This much she knew as Anubis had let it slip through his iron presence inside of her, though she was beguiled at the fact that Anubis seemed to have no great concern over it. In fact, he seemed encouraged by the fact. However, Eve knew that the confrontation between her ideals and those of her senshi critics would soon come to head.

Thus, she was presented with her second problem. Though Anubis dwelled within her, feeding her great knowledge and power as she seemed to feed his very essence, she knew that the powers leeched to her were no match for these new powers given to the Sailor senshi. It was, in fact, her general that gave her any kind of security against those who wished her harm. Her acolytes were growing in number, but they were weak and unable to amount to any real defense against the Sailor senshi. Kage was the only being of any potency that truly amounted as an asset in her quest. However, this volatile Scion was now so unstable that Eve truly could not rely on him doing anything she asked.

Her only insurance was the two he desired more than anything; something she kept just outside his reach to keep him loyal. Even that loyalty was becoming frail. Without the use of his celestial weapon, she could contain him, but his mind was something of an unraveling tapestry. Her involuntary attraction for him was merely what all women felt for that wild side. She also knew that most of it was from the part of her taken from Makoto. Despite her desires to have him, she would have to make a decision soon.

She would have to give him what he wanted or destroy him.

"Kage, my love, have you not received my summons for…"

Eve was unable to finish her sentence upon entering the room. In a moment of true understanding, Eve's knees shook violently and her hand instantly covered her mouth, her eyes almost bleeding as she stared forward at Kage's discarded collection.

He sat forward, his elbows propped on the small table in front of him, facing Eve and the open door over the table but totally unaware of it. The dim lights of the room shadowed all of him, aside from those gaunt hands and his glowering, ghastly face. The flowers before him were radiant and seemed to glow in the room, truly representing the beautiful in a room otherwise full of chaos. Lying about the room, strewn over ground and one another, was what was left of the acolytes sent to summon her general. Eve looked on in horror as their bodies lie mangled about, their arms broken or torn from their bodies, their chests oriented the opposite way of their hips or their face staring out like hollow shells hell-bound from the hand of the grim reaper himself. Not one of them suffered a peaceful death and each still appeared as if screaming; screaming for their end to come rushing to them as an end to all of their suffering.

"There is still something missing. I can't exactly decide what yet, but there is one last thing I need to do before they are perfect," Kage lulled in a tone that sent shivers of Eve's spine. He was a fearsome creature, looming back behind something beautiful and completely calm in the calamity around him.

Eve's body shook as she tried to breathe, even though she was prepared for all kinds of death due to Anubis inside of her. Upon seeing the gruesome scene before her, she felt an overwhelming pain in her heart and a throbbing fear in her stomach. Her eyes moved shakily from the bodies to him, unable to think straight upon seeing the look on his face. He was looking upon the flowers, his eyes barely open but showing nothing, as if they had lost the unique glow that had first set her about him. It was something else, however, that truly terrified her. "These…girls were human. I gave them nothing more than the power for our cause. They were innocent."

Now her fear multiplied, for Kage's eyes opened slowly and set the darkness ablaze with a pale green hue. Eve stepped back, though she felt that even if she ran from him, it would be the thing he wanted most; a sign of her fear and a sign for him to lunge for her. All of her being told her one thing in a clear, unanimous voice; Kage was the person most likely to kill her.

He had finally done it.

He had finally lost his humanity.

"Innocence is the bastard excuse for the holistic. If there is one thing I have learned from life, it is that innocence has no relevance in death." Kage's presence filled the room like the acrylic smell of the blood. His heart, blackened by a singular event, held no thunder as it beat; brought no rhythm to his being. Eve wanted to remove herself of this scene or to berate him of his actions, but she knew that it was dangerous to confront him now. She had no more sway over him and she knew it. What could control Kage now, she did not know.

Her lips quivering made a noise that seemed to amuse Kage, for he shifted his chin along his knitted hands and paled her with a pallid grin. "Do you know what the best kind of villain is? Do you know why history and literature are filled with beloved villains?" He waited, not really for an answer but to enjoy the sight of seeing Eve tremble in fear before him. It was exhilarating. "The best villain is the one who is understandably angry at the world. He is the one who makes you justify his actions, even as you hate him. Oda Nobunaga was often considered a demon; a vicious, cruel being who committed unspeakable atrocities. But we adore him because he made a change; because he had ambition. Do you think I'm a justifiable villain?"

Once more silence permeated the room and Kage waited for an answer that would never come. The snowballing that had occurred with his remorse had finally taken over, leaving him incapacitated in his own mind. Perhaps what thrilled him most was that he didn't care anymore. "These girls were human and I killed them all because they bothered me. In fact, all humans bother me. I think that anything that isn't a flower bothers me now. I want to crush anything that bothers me and watch it squirm under my foot until it dies. I want to make this a world of flowers. To do that, I have to be a villain. Do you think I make a good villain?" he asked her again, this time rising from the table and taking her eyes up with him. She still dared not move, but all of her wanted to run as he stepped around the table, his feet padding across puddles of blood and broken bodies until he stood before her, looming like a nightmare she couldn't believe she contrived. "To be honest, I think I've gone insane a little. It's a pretty weird feeling, but I think I like it. That means that really the only thing keeping you alive, my disgusting little slut, is the fact that you have what I want." Kage continued to petrify her, his voice cold and metallic and his movements ruthless to her breathing. Her chest was refusing to fall back down after that initial breath of his approach, so she stood erect before him as his hand reached out to grope her body. However, his fingers stopped short of touching her breasts and his eyes darkened. "You foul thing. You're still Anubis's little bitch and I wouldn't soil myself by touching you. Do you really know how much I hate you?" His hand moved up past her neck and to her chin, tracing back along her jaw without touching her skin. Then, a sudden pain ripped through Eve's ear and she yelped, cringing in pain as her hand shot to her ear. A warm, sticky feeling stuttered her heart and she stared wide-eyed up at him.

Kage, idly looking at the ornate earring in his hand and the trickle of blood down his fingers, seemed somewhat appeased for the moment. With his eyes moving back to her, his smile turned absolutely wicked as he licked some of her blood from his finger and let a deep chuckle up from his belly. It was finally more than Eve could bear. She slowly stepped backwards from him, a welling hiss of curses stuck in her throat and burning tears in her eyes. Within an instant, she had turned and fled from him. Kage stood, once more, alone in the room.

Without any deliberation, he turned back to the table and gazed upon the flowers. The task took only a moment, but soon he leaned straight once more and let out a deep sigh. The earring now hung on the stem of a prominent flower in his display. Though the earring still had a small trace of blood on it, Kage felt the overall effect was exactly what he desired and set to sum up his art in one word.

"Perfect."

The entire section of the palace began to fill with a sinister laugh and the repeated screaming of the word that seemed to encompass his admiration of all of the flowers.

* * *

For some time now, the darkness had been laughing in Mamoru's face. For what seemed like ages, he had been trapped in a place that had no walls and no doors; just an endless realm of blackness and cold existence. He was somewhat annoyed at the lack of substance to this place.

However, he had finally come across something that he had no preparation for and no ability to conceive of why he would find what he found. Consciousness was something of a dream-state for him and he somehow knew that the part of him that was present in the place was not his body, but his soul. Still, this provided answers to the questions that were burning at the front of his mind. Here he had no Usako to take refuge upon, no grand scheme of tranquility to enforce his idealistic philosophies. There was only one thing that existed here and the very fact of it defied his logic.

Out of all people, why was it him?

"It's you. What is this place and what am I doing here?" he demanded, looking at the lumped figure before him; a figure lingering on some astral plane in a shielding position, for there was no ground to speak of.

The figure said nothing.

Yamito seemed like a shadow of his former self, according to Mamoru. This foreboding warrior had always given him for a certain level of concern, but there was something different about him now; something cold and distant and not consistent with anything Mamoru knew of him. Yet, he still expected that the reason he was here was because of the silent Scion.

"Answer me! Were you the one who brought me here!"

This time Mamoru approached, his face showing the trepidation associated with this unknown that had come into his life. He was no fool. There were times when he absolutely knew that this young man had invaded the love that he shared with his soulmate Usagi. Yet, he had never confronted either of them about it.

Until now.

"Stay away," came the brooding warning from beyond his back. Mamoru had been becoming very tired of looking at his back, but the warning did give him enough sense to linger just beyond the touch of the intense heat that still lingered about Yamito, even in a place that was not physical reality. Another reason Mamoru hesitated was the element in Yamito's voice that completely shook his resolve to confront him.

Yamito was shivering. He was engrossed in fears like that of a child. Mamoru couldn't see it, but he could hear it in his voice and see the visible tremors in Yamito's form. It sent chills down his back. Perhaps Yamito was as innocent in the place as he was.

"I see you finally found each other."

This time it was another voice entirely and Mamoru was instantly on alert. His eyes instantly shot to the only other figure in sight; the only other thing in sight. It was a man, sitting much like Yamito was but facing them both. A flawless gray cloak covered his entire body but for a wrinkled, tired mouth visible in the unnatural ambient light. A hood covered the old man's face, but the eyes that held back under the shadow were ones that Mamoru winced at and faced the man with pure intent. The object lazily leaning within the old man's frail grasp was something that put him on alert; a long, weathered scythe with a jagged-toothed blade. Though terrifying in appearance, the weapon seemed far more than a mere elderly man could handle. As if reading his thoughts, the old man's creased lips broke into a crude, rotten-toothed smile.

"You have nothing to fear from me, mighty prince of Earth. I am only as real as you are in this place, which is not that real at all!" he said, laughing with a hacking cough.

Mamoru had forgotten about Yamito for the moment and stared intently at the old man, not letting his cool demeanor fluctuate for a moment. "Who are you? What is this place?"

"You are nowhere, your Highness. You are in a place beyond representation in the lexicon. You just are," he replied, letting that craggy smile portray his amusement. The old man had yet to look upon the other, but he was not totally unaware of his presence. "As for me, I am many persons. At this moment in your time, let us just say that I am, indeed, time. I brought you both here."

Mamoru stared a moment, almost ashamed that he didn't think of it before. The old man had seemed familiar to him all because of the countless cards and pictures he had seen of that familiar character in popular belief; Father Time. It was a little too embellished and he almost smirked, but the reality of his situation was too dire to take lightly. "Why am I here? Where are the senshi and the rest? Why is he here?" Mamoru demanded, finally looking over to the still stationary Yamito.

The old man didn't move, but Mamoru got the impression that he was looking over at the silent Scion. His smile still stayed sly, but his tone changed only enough to cause Mamoru to notice. "The reason you are here is because of him. The reason he is here is because of you."

Mamoru scowled at the rhetoric and took a menacing step towards the old man. Though he felt a very real aversion to being here, he didn't simply rage at the proclaimed captor who lingered before him as a gaunt old man. There was something inside him that gave dire warnings to becoming too presumptuous towards him. "What does that mean! Stop telling me riddles and answer my question."

The old slowly began to stir, trying to find footing long enough to balance his weight and rise to his feet. Mamoru watched, his good nature tempting him to help the old man to his feet but the same warning in his mind keeping him from moving near to him. There was just something about this old man that didn't feel right. "At this moment," the old man said between laborious breaths, "what you want to know will be revealed soon. Time, conversely, has the power to reveal all things. The prince of the Earth will be returned as an oracle and thus serve his purpose in this task." Again, the old man answered without actually saying anything Mamoru wanted to hear, but something else soon caught his attention.

Yamito was moving to his feet also, but had yet to turn around. Mamoru watched him with no sense of exactly Yamito was now, for Mamoru had a unique ability to sense things about a person, especially human, and gage them. However, he wasn't able to sense anything about Yamito anymore, something that would have caused him great concern had they been in a situation where Usako or Rei was involved. However, right now, the old man was more of a formidable source than Yamito.

"Oh, the young one stirs. He, perhaps, harbors the most important question of all. He knows now the reason for all the sorrow and agony. He is the reason you return," the old man continued and started moving towards Mamoru. Mamoru was still looking at Yamito, but the old man's proximity was slowly becoming more and more alarming. When the shaky figure finally came too close, Mamoru stepped back once more. "I will send you with my avatar. She will see that you return safely to the princess," the old man said, his head shifting slightly as another figure appeared from the darkness behind him. Mamoru was in shock. Suddenly, everything became connected and this was no longer some obscure dream with no relevance. Sailor Pluto could offer nothing to him in terms of explanation or consolation, only stand silently at the side of the old man and stare at Mamoru.

"Setsuna?" Mamoru asked, his heart running a thousand miles in mere moments. When she didn't answer, he looked slowly back to the old man, who was no longer and old man. Now he was a young man, standing taller than Mamoru and holding a brilliant staff in his hand instead of an old scythe. The celestial orb embedded at the top of the staff sent a violet haze throughout the void and gave Mamoru the most unusual sensation he had ever felt. Upon looking at the young face barely visible under the hood, Mamoru stared uncontrollably into the pastel blue eyes and felt something pulling at the back of his brain; something from his life before. "I have seen you before. Who are you?"

The question caused Sailor Pluto to close her eyes and turn her head, but the man's face turned into a very soft smile. "Once, I was advisor to the queen of the Silver Millennium. Those on Earth who thought of me used the names Dis, Hades or Chronus. Although now I am and will be a faded memory to you, your highness, you will see me again as long as my wife finds your cause just. You truly have no conception of how fortunate you are to retain her loyalty," he replied, his eyes shifting to the side to a still silent Sailor Pluto. Mamoru was beside himself in shock and stared between the two, unable to fully grasp that bit of information. Wife? Hades? Advisor to the queen of the Silver Millennium? There was far too much going on here for him to take in such a short time, but already the haze around him was beginning to cloud his memory and impair his mind. Just as things were beginning to blur, and Sailor Pluto's sad face looked upon him with silent reprieve, Mamoru heard the man speak once more. "You will tell them what they need to know. You will continue the purpose of all of this and bring this task to end. Because of this task, Prince of the Earth, something that has never happened before will finally bring the gods and men closer together, and you will see this sacred event all because of this one, young man," he said, gesturing to the Scion standing equilaterally as the third point to a triangle.

Mamoru looked to Yamito just in time to see his face. What he saw shocked him, and he promptly faded away.


	7. The Bruised Heart Beating

**Chapter Seven – The Bruised Heart Beating**

"Why do you keep doing that?" a very weary Michiru asked. For an hour now, she had been watching Haruka peer back over her shoulder and glare into the compounding darkness brought on by the waning sunset in the distance to the West. They were both walking south.

The concert had been mediocre, with the music drawing a great critique from a disappointed Michiru and Haruka spending nearly the entire evening peering around the audience for something. Michiru had noticed then as well and stared at her beloved with an impatient glance, something hardly standard for the beautiful young woman. Haruka was just as peculiar. Her attitude had been vigilant and her face had not yet even broken from the fastidious glancing about that had settled over her at some unknown point in the day. Even now, Haruka merely grazed Michiru with her sight before looking back forward with no less alarm.

"Because," she said, "something is off tonight. There's an odor in the air or the like, but something is definitely wrong."

Michiru ignored the odor temptation and took her own look around, also somewhat aware of a lewd sensation lingering in the cooling night air. With no small amount of disregard, she said, "What do you think it is?"

"Kage!"

Michiru's head snapped forward just in time to see Kage standing before them both, a dire, demon glow in his eyes and his lips torn into a sneer. Haruka and Michiru had only a moment to let their breaths seep away before Kage's body tensed and his right fist reared back like it was being suspended by elastics. He said nothing to either of them. He simply widened his sneer just as he threw his fist forward.

Haruka felt the impact ripple through her body and a metallic air filled her nose.

* * *

There were others in the city who were distressed at the unapparent air lingering over Tokyo like a silk cloth draped over its face. Night was the time of sin and sanctity, but there was something else that was keeping Makoto on her balcony, her forlorn glancing feeling like it was being absorbed into the air or reflected right back at her. For some time now, she was not able to sleep or eat well. Her mind was a tumult because of Kage and she hated him for it. She hated the storybooks for telling her of perfect love and then let her be torn apart by reality. Most of all, she hated the fact that she could not stop caring about Kage or the fact that everything should have been putting them together when, in truth, everything was splitting them apart. Yet, it was impossible to let him go. He hurt her, rejected her and even ignored her, but it was the simple look in his eye, that malevolent sense of loneliness and deep agony that sent her forward in this inane quest to make him love her.

She was tired of rationalizing her feelings towards him. She was tired of being tired of him.

Resolve was burning in her eyes as she stared out into the night, her chest rising and falling wildly against her hand and the locket trapped under it. He was the greatest fool! How could he just ignore her feelings for him? Why did he make such an effort to treat her with such disdain? Why could he just love her?

By now, her teeth and her hands were clenched over the intense feelings of hurt, determination and convoluted love that were burning through her veins more vividly than anything she had ever felt before. Everyone had spoken to her, but it had all felt like stones being cast against the walls of Rome. There was far too much hesitation in her to amiably allow her to accept her task. Until now.

"I'm going to do it. I have to..." she said, her fist clasping around the locket in her neck. With a single push, she leapt over the balcony of her apartment and fell towards the ground, the wind blasting through her hair and clothes in an exhilarating rush of clarity. As her clothing fell away into sparkles, a soldier's thread tied around her, marking her last resort in bringing down the wildly waning heart.

* * *

She was in disbelief as she stood now, facing the friend she had fought and found, but was herself the revered victory. There had been a certain level of pride in her friendship with this Scion, if only for the fact that he turned everyone away with his hard-edged ego and vicious manner. There was also pride in knowing that Kage chose his friends carefully as well.

Now, all of that seemed surreal. Kage was a different animal than before and Sailor Star Uranus was reeling in the wake of his change. Her mouth was bleeding, her knuckles were raw and her eyes were burning in an assortment of pity and anger towards him. It had only been ten minutes since his initial attack on them, but already he had revealed himself as the new person he was, or the lack of the person he used to be. After only ten minutes, she was disgusted with how their fight was going. "Giving up already? You have to pay for your little sucker punch, Kage-chan," she said bitingly, running her tongue over the inside of her lips where it was broken open.

Kage was in far worse shape. Something also different about him was another change in his appearance. His uniform had changed from the one Eve had given, for now it was simple and elegant. Like a reflection, it was nothing more than a kimono with a pair of gray hakama. With his hair pulled back, he looked like something right out of the Warring States Period. One side of his kimono was left to drape down his back, leaving his shoulder and arm bare but she also had noticed it was the left side and not the right, as if to cover the deep scar she knew was on his right shoulder. Although his new uniform was strangely fitting, it too was in dilapidated form. She had taken out her revenge on him and it showed in his face, his stance and his breathing. At the hands of Sailor Uranus, two of his ribs were broken, his mouth was thick with his own blood and she had popped his left shoulder out of joint. Each breath sent a spike of sheer pain through his body and that fact that blood was still coming up through his throat informed him of the extent of his injuries. The fight had been short, but very vicious as she had easily been dominating him.

He could not understand why. "Maybe I'll get serious and really start putting the hurt on," he snarled back, taking a moment to spit blood out onto the ground.

As powerful as it sounded, Sailor Uranus smirked and loosened her stand a bit. "Now that's really pathetic. You can barely stand up and it's only been fifteen minutes. You're not even fighting like yourself, much less sounding like yourself. You're as dangerous as a little noisy dog on the street now," she said. The remark made Kage yell an expletive at her before charging once more, using his powerful upper body to throw wild punches at her. She easily avoided them. With a resounding kick, Kage was put onto the pavement yet another time, his face leaving a bloody puddle under his gasping breaths.

Sailor Star Neptune was not going to stand around anymore and ran to him, letting her judgment be impaired by the fact that she did not want to see her friend beaten to a pulp, even by her lover. With a consoling hand across his back, she looked to Sailor Uranus and yelled, "Stop, Haruka! Kage, you have to stop doing this. You're not well."

"Don't be absurd." Sailor Uranus replied, looking at him with a scowl. "That's not even Kage anymore. He's just some pathetic fool who can't do anything but hate and fight. He can't even use his Ryushuuken anymore. He's just an animal." Sailor Neptune was shocked at the level of anger in Sailor Uranus, but even more as her hand was simply slapped away by Kage as he turned over and glared back at Sailor Uranus through each seething breath. There was no attempt to attack either of them for the moment, but rather a very wretched look in his eyes as he stared back. Sailor Uranus continued to speak, "Look at you. Your offensive attack was a punch. You can't even balance yourself anymore or use your legs in that beautiful Ryushuuken style. All you do now is make a lot of noise and a lot of mistakes, a complete departure from the Kage I came to respect. I look at you now and all I see is just another worthless enemy trying to prove he is a match for us. You disgust me."

There was a truth in what she was saying and Kage knew it, though there was no world in existence where he would simply give up and accept his shortcomings. In all of his tidings of revenge, he could feel himself slipping away into the void he was creating within. It scared him. It was so frightening that he could not find a way back and just fell further and further into it. Throughout his life, he had always had something that was keeping him anchored, away from the dark places that the monks had always told him about. That thing was Mika, but she was gone. With nothing to keep him safe, he slipped closer and closer to black puddle and no matter how hard he screamed and threw his arms about in futility, he was just draping closer and closer to the surface of the black water. These things became the essence for his insanity and provided him with the only solace in a dying man's struggle; chaos.

"I'll kill you for underestimating me!" he howled and leapt towards her, much to the surprise of Sailor Neptune. Sailor Uranus was instantly waiting for his heretical punch, but something else shattered the night air like a siren on rocky shores.

"Kage!"

Sailor Uranus looked to Sailor Star Jupiter, but Kage was far too engrossed in his rage to be distracted. Even though she had looked away to see the voice that had called so passionately to the Scion, Sailor Uranus looked back in time to parry his punch, flipping him head over heels to the ground and pinning his arm to the ground harshly. It was a move that Kage had actually taught her, which only furthered her disgusted expression.

There was no way to describe the feelings Sailor Jupiter felt when she saw two people she cared for fighting each other, but the instant reaction was to run towards the struggling Kage. He was beaten and weak and Sailor Uranus was holding him sternly to the ground and held no reservations about letting him stay there. There was the expectation that Kage would simply break his own arm to get out of the hold, but he was either too weak or unwilling to achieve such a feat at the moment. Sailor Jupiter only felt her heart race faster as she stopped before them both and beheld the object of all of her suffering. Flustered, she cried to Sailor Uranus, "Don't hurt him, Haruka! He's already in bad shape!"

"This isn't the same Kage, Sailor Jupiter. He's a fake – not even worth saving," she replied, looking down to the weakened Scion.

"But," Sailor Jupiter protested, "you said we were still going to try! I can't give up on him! There is still some good in him, I know it!" Sailor Uranus scoffed at her a moment, but soon released Kage's wrist and stood straight, taking a few cautious steps backwards to let him have some room.

"Fine, I won't fight him anymore. It's not even a challenge anyway."

Sailor Jupiter's face lightened considerably and she looked down to Kage, kneeling and saying, "Kage? It's Makoto. Are you okay?"

Kage was barely moving and laid his face against the ground to his utter shame. It was true; he had lost the ability to use his sacred martial art and could only fight like all of those thugs he used to despise. He was now no different than them. It made his face burn and his hands shake, but only because Haruka was the one who had been right all along. His pride was gone, his mind was fading and his body was aching with every breath. The only sanctuary was the soft voice piercing his ears and the warm touch on his arm. The darkness was coming so fast now. He was being pulled in with no chance of escape. There was really only one thing to do.

"Fight me." he growled, barely audible enough for her to hear him.

"W-what?" she asked.

He growled again, this time deeper and with more volume, "Fight me now!" This time, his body sprung like a cornered animal and his back of his hand caught her across her cheek. The force was so sudden that Sailor Jupiter yelped and reeled backwards, her cheek reddened by the strike and her eyes pressed closed. The two other senshi were barely able to register a gasp before Kage sprung up, moving languidly right at Sailor Jupiter again, his eyes ablaze in shame and anger and his teeth bared like a tiger's. "Fight back!" he howled again, not giving her time to respond before he struck her in the opposite side of her face, sending her head snapping back the other way and her throat shrilling once more.

Hitting the ground, she looked up at him with betrayed eyes once more, as if she should have expected this again but thought he was past his own selfish hatred. There he stood, looming over her as if to renounce her once more. It was more than she could bear. "Why, Kage? Why are you –"

"Quit talking! I want you to fight me!" he screamed, this time finally using his legs as he sent his left foot into her midsection. Sailor Jupiter was sent spiraling away from him with a yelp, the tears that had formed in her eyes being flung from her like a sparkling mist. Kage too was beside himself in emotion, his face feral with fear and loathing. No sooner had he punished her once more did Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus grab him and try to stop this vicious attack on someone who wanted nothing more than to love him and be loved.

"Kage! What are you doing!" Sailor Uranus yelled as she held him.

"Have you gone insane?!" Sailor Neptune added as he struggled in her grasp.

By this time Kage was nothing more than a thrashing beast, his actions unknown even to him and his eyes moving all around in an attempt to see everything all at once. His mouth, blood-stained and gaping, was muttering the most insane things in untamed tones and tambour. It was really frightening the two holding him. "I'll kill everything! I want flowers! Give...me...flowers!" he roared, exerting a surge of energy from his body that was distinctly not from the power of Jupiter. Both of the senshi were thrown from him violently and sent a good distance away, leaving a panting and ranting Scion to marvel at the needle-like sensation all over his body.

It only took one punch to put him on his back and end his incoherent rambling. His head ringing, Kage opened his eyes slowly and saw his attacker. Sailor Jupiter's fist remained where it had struck him, a testament to the truth in the matter. One cheek was red, the other was slightly bruised and her eyes were inflamed with the accumulation of the entire discourse of their history. The strike was the catalyst for her heart; the focal point of her pent aggression and emotion. It was easy to see how one punch had put him on his back so easily.

"Are you going to finally fight?" he asked, sitting up weakly but with a renewed look of stability in his eyes.

There was no answer for a moment, but rather a silent response in her eyes. The tears that had fallen like rain were still in her eyes, but they were waiting for something; waiting for the right time to fall. There came a point when any woman in love had to stand up and take the thing she wanted most. There had been enough talk about her feelings towards him to fill ten of her romance novels, but it would be this silent dialogue that would force the resolution of the festering question that had existed since the arrival of the Scion.

Makoto was about to win or lose in the game of love, but there would finally be an end to her misery. She had been waiting too long, heard too many rationalizations and fallen under too many pretenses. If Kage wasn't able to love her like she loved him, then he would become the villain he had been portraying and fall under the unmerciful wrath of not only a senshi bound in her duty, but a girl who had been scorned and forsaken in the labors of love.

"Yes, I am."


	8. Of Fear or For Love

**Chapter Eight – Of Fear or For Love**

"Out of the night that covers me..."

Rei was instantly on her guard as the voice resonated through the blackness of the plain, disregarding any consideration of where she was or why she got there. It was a black place, which was all she knew. The terrain looked much like the moon; a desolate place with towers of ancient rocks that had seen the rise and fall of stars but had never been able to move out past their pewter tombs. It was a jagged and dangerous place, yet there was a hot breeze blowing on some absent atmosphere, a fact that was well beyond her realm of caring for the moment. That breeze, though hot and clammy, came harrowing over her bare skin and somehow, as if to defy its very nature, chilled her.

Only in a dream could nudity become an afterthought. Reality worked on a very different level during the dreamer's march than that of the waking world, so Rei was hardly convinced that this place was of any real threat to her. However, dreams were also the battlements of the soul. That very reason kept her on her guard and warding away any bad spirits by the strength of her presence.

"Black as the pit from pole to pole..."

The voice was melodic, reciting unknown words to her in a foreign tongue that somehow came out in understandable recognition and surprisingly metered tambour. It was the sort of thing that could only happen in a dream; the submersion into a thousand languages and the understanding of a lucid, lyrical mind. Rei was still very agitated and glared around, her eyes fighting fear while her body was tense with tension. "Who's there? What is this place?" she asked, her voice echoing into the distance nothingness with all of the fervor of an unspoken whisper in a gale.

As soon as she had requited herself to being very much in contention with this place, there presence of another figure appeared to throw her into a flurry. Her heart wrenched at the sight and her breathing ceased, for nothing was quite as stirring as seeing the essence of love sealed within a single form. Yamito was one person she had never thought she would meet again, for the gods and devils of existence found it fit to infuriate her life and happiness by denying her the only thing she loved as much as her princess. But he appeared before her, his body held aloft by an unseen force and his face cast into perpetual slumber.

It was the site of him that quelled her rage at the place and replaced this rage with utter elation. Her eyes moved over every piece of him, as if to gage his authenticity against the memories that still tormented her every waking thought and caused her to weep out of sheer frustration of it all. Every glorious part of him was perfect, save for his eyes, which would not open even at her beckon. "Yamito?" she asked, taking a soft step forward in hopes of his eternal gaze. There was no response. Like a great leeching haze, a black vapor seemed to grow out of his back and spread like great wings behind him. They resembled the same wings of flame that had surrounded him when he had embraced his full power, yet there was something entirely different, as if they were the same and yet different somehow. Even with her great intuition, she could not place the feeling she got from the haze. "Yami-chan? Is it you?" she asked again, her voice growing softer with each step forward.

"I thank whatever gods may be..."

The obscure poem continued, leaving one last section to linger in the air. Rei was almost ignoring it now, for all she yearned for was before her now in defiance of the prophecy of his death. His face was so beautiful, yet madness endured as his eyes would not receive her. Much to her further dismay, yet another figure appeared, continuing the trend of his interference in this matter.

Rei ignored Jikan, if only until he spoke and completely changed the tone. "The princess of Mars. I told you once that in another lifetime you would receive a visit from me about the one who shares your soul," he said. It broke her attention away from Yamito, though she looked upon Jikan as if he had performed the most heinous form of sacrilege possible. However, soon enough her face broke from its metal visage and a flicker of recognition appeared. It pleased Jikan and he said, "My prophecies have an unconditional way of being fulfilled. I knew this time in your life would come, for I am one of the very architects of this age. Do you know the last line of the poem?"

She hesitated, lost a moment in the maddening familiarity of his face. "Poem?"

"Yes," he replied, "a poem that I spoke to you over a thousand years ago when this place was very much likened unto the Silver Millennium." Just as he said the words, the landscape around them began to change. Towers, obelisks and palaces began to fade into view, though they lingered on the edge of sight like the pools of water in the desert heat. Rei was oblivious them all, though she knew they were there. Everything was touching the very edge of her memory, as if this was all a dream forgotten in another lifetime.

However, one thing did come back to her. Her eyes closed slowly and her heart calmed, the timing in her ears finding just the right place for her to finish the last line in a quiet, elegant tone. "For my indomitable soul." Jikan's face brightened into a smile and that one moment, the moment of her remembrance of a poem told so long ago and through a clouded veil, was something that he had been waiting for since the last moment of her consciousness.

"Words that were written just for you. Do you not feel them in every part of your being?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied, her voice weak and weary.

"They have appeared on Earth since as tribute to one princess who lived on the moon and was assigned one of the most tortuous fates ever conceived by my Morae. You were chosen to carry this burden because you embody those very words within you. It is you, Princess of Mars, which will be the deciding factor of the most wonderful occurrence ever to happen in your universe," Jikan continued. Such powerful ideas take only moments to set in and as soon as Rei realized that this was more than just a random dream, her eyes instantly enveloped Jikan, though her throat was scarce of a reply.

Time was the most powerful force in any creature's life, but time was also the most sublime. It had a way of abandoning the most astute of watchers and interlock the most dire of circumstances all by simply ticking away with a arduous finality. A weathered gasp slipped from the lips of Yamito and Rei was instantly aware of him; aware of the life that had somehow been breathed back into him at the mere whim of her heart. As instant as her realization, she was at his side, putting on him hands that had been forced through a famine and deprivation that could only be categorized as torture to any who's heart held a beat.

"Yamito. I'm here. Please, say something," she cooed into his ears, her hands running over his neck and face as he struggled against some formidable illness. Her heart had not been given such exaltation since the last moment of his smile, the moment before he faded away into her dreams. Perhaps this was just a dream, but she did not even care. His skin pressed against hers was real enough; the feel of his hair between her fingers faultless and the sensation of his breath on her cheek soothing.

Yamito would not respond, but she found some kind of temporary sanity in his open eyes. It was more than enough that he was there with her.

"In the whole of existence, there is only one being that knows where this path will lead you both, yet he remains vigilant in his observation. Fate is no one's chain. This moment is allowed to you, for mere instants away you will be plunged into turmoil and your lover's name will decide just how beautiful the whole of humanity is," Jikan said, his figure fading away from sight with his words of warning falling on Rei's deaf ears. Jikan could have told her the meaning of life and she would have passed it up for the chance to see the spark of recognition in Yamito's eyes. Her chest swelling with each labored breath, she just nuzzled him contently and continued whispering his name against the sweet surface of his skin.

There was no way to truly gage how trying the moments had been since Yamito overcame his overwhelming dark power and gave up his life for Rei. Moments passed like glass over her skin, days related to a thousand crystal shards being driven into her eyes in cruel attempts to rob them of all of her sweet tears and hopeful glances to that place just over her shoulder where she would often see him watching her. When the others returned, whether for good or for bad, her lover was absent, demoted and thrown away into the realm of the lost. Even Makoto had the chance to save the one she loved. Rei was denied any type of salvation. Even now, as the warm tears stained her cheeks and the soft whispers of her own voice seemed to have no effect on Yamito's daze, she didn't really know if he was alive or if this was just another cruel form of torture given to her for this blind love she held for him. Was he alive? Was this merely a dream after all? Such questions became nothing as the voice, the one that could stop a thousand tumult thoughts in her mind, made her breast swell against him in sheer ecstasy.

"Rei? Is that you?"

"Yes," she said, her words nearly choking in her throat as she smiled at him, "I'm here for you."

"I'm afraid. Why am I so afraid? Why can't I –"

His voice began to waver out of control but Rei quickly stopped him, placing her hand over his lips and trying not to scare him further by crying. "It's okay, really. I won't let anything happen to you, Yami-chan. I'll protect you from anything that could hurt you," she promised, wrapping her arms around him tightly and burying her face into the nape of his neck.

He could feel the tears wetting his skin, yet his arms would not obey his order to move around her. It was as if he was a doll, hanging lifelessly by the black haze across his back and unable to move on his own. Somehow, he understood it, yet it was the prime force behind his fear and attraction to it. However, Rei's embrace was the single factor bringing him clarity in a time that offered none, so all else was forgotten within the arms of a lost lover's longing.

"I'm sorry, Rei," he said suddenly.

This confession broke her eyes open quickly, but she feared that if she were to let him go or move at all the dream would take her away from him and she would be sent right back into the forlorn trance she had been in since his death. "Why?" she asked, her voice still catching harshly in her throat.

"For what I am," he replied solemnly.

It caused the tears to come rushing from her eyes once more and she whimpered, pressing her face back into his neck with only random denials potent on her lips. Was it not enough that he had to bear this unnatural power and destiny, but did he also have to hate himself because of it? He was the most beautiful creature she had ever known and there was not a single part of her that did not love him completely. To hear him forsake his very existence drove a dagger into her heart and she wanted, above all else, to prove to him that what he was could be nothing less of perfection.

At least, she thought so.

* * *

Long ago Kage had forgotten what was the real him. His life was first decimated when both of his parents were killed in an earthquake, the strongest earthquake to hit Tokyo in over a hundred years. Being only nine years old and then the only person who could take care of his five year old sister, Kage was instantly forced to forget a normal childhood and begin his life of taking care of not only himself but the helpless young sister he had always teased and taunted. However, necessity is the single most powerful driving force in maturity and soon Kage was looking at the world in a whole new light. Mika was the only family he had left, the only real thing he had in the world. After a year in and out of temporary homes, he had grown to love her with a ferocity that eclipsed the destruction of the very earthquake that destroyed his life. Thus, Kage grew and endured.

His life changed two-fold in the next several years. Soon he was serving the monastery, poised to relinquish his life to servitude in order to give Mika the chance to attend school and have a warm place to sleep. Soon Kage was learning not only the life lessons and history contained within the monk's vast vessel of knowledge, but he was quickly becoming a very skilled martial artist. After his domination of traditional arts such as karate and aikido, he began his tutelage in the mystic and ancient form known only to the monks of that order. The style was known as Ryushuuken. This was the form he used now, a beautiful discipline of kicks for offense and powerful upper-body movements for defense. There were few forms that could match well against Ryushuuken and Kage was fast becoming the most gifted student the monastery had ever seen. Perhaps, in some small way, it was the fact that Kage had found his powers as a Scion early in his training and used the experience he had gained to accentuate his art form that defined him as an apt pupil.

The seventeen-year old Kage was just about ready to begin his final training with the grandmaster himself when the unthinkable happened. Tragedy was befalling the world in the form of Anubis. Not even his friend Ryu could seem to stave this horror that was crawling over the city like a ghastly phantom. The life of a disciplined, centered Kage came to an end when two of his own kind, the Scion of Uranus and Neptune, left the broken shell of Yamamori Mika on the ground for Kage to see, letting even his Acrolyth form weep over the body that had anchored his humanity. Not even the celestial sword of Jupiter being impaled through his shoulder compared to the agony that tore at his heart.

Kage was then a different person once more. This time he was distant and indifferent to the world. Much to the shock and sadness to his friends and fellow Scion, the seed of hatred was planted into Kage with all of the nurturing odium required to create an insidious creature. The smoking, the fighting and the arguing all became outward representations of this seedling shade that was festering and growing inside of him. He was not the same person he was. With the catalyst of a new world, a new Anubis and a new chance on getting his hands on the two that had caused him such agony, coupled with the unsettling affections of a young girl with the same power as he, Kage began to spiral once again, embracing this odious tree within his soul and forsaking everything but the purpose of taking revenge on all things for the life he had been handed. Truly, all he wanted now was the see the world broken and lying in his arms, bleeding tears and whispering his name softly to the Charites.

Staring down into the puddle of blood, Kage could see his reflection in some lewd, darkened form. The blood was his and it trickled from his lips, nose and a rather large wound above his right eye, the product of a scorned young woman with heartache and heartbreak in her eyes. Kage could barely understand how a girl he had so easily bested before was now seemingly unbeatable. Looking up, his bloodied face furrowed into a mosaic of dispute, he watched Sailor Star Jupiter staring right back at him, her chest heaving in frustration and exhaustion, her brow buried across her usually gentle eyes.

Kage spit, adding to the blood on the ground, then pushed himself to his feet weakly all while trying to ignore all of the pain racking his body. He could not remember anything now; not Ryushuuken, not Mika and not even himself. All that was there now was this revenge that fueled his every breath, suspended his every thought. "I won't lose to you. You won't stop me from getting my revenge," he snarled, his stance barely stable enough to keep him standing but his eyes and voice wavering with each passing moment.

Sailor Jupiter knew that this fight was over, as did both of the other senshi watching from a small distance away. Each of them had grown to care for Kage, even if he managed to not see it, and they were all appalled and remorseful at seeing him like this. Sailor Jupiter's gloves were stained with blood, something that she didn't often see due to the nature of her enemies. Her uniform was also stained, but with a mix of blood and tears brought on by the fact that the one she was hurting no was not only Kage, but herself with each kick or punch. It was completely against her nature, but she had to fight the person she cared for and force him out of this chasm he had fallen into.

"You have to stop, Kage. You're not even fighting for revenge anymore. You're just fighting!" she called, not willing to loosen her stance even for a moment.

"What the hell do you know? You have a perfect little life with perfect little friends and nothing to make you wake up screaming in the night. You aren't allowed to look down on me!" he roared, the last of his lightning cascading down his arms into a point before him and firing like a massive cannon at her. She didn't even move. The blast sailed to the right of her and broke several trees in half, but obviously showed just how exhausted he was.

Sailor Jupiter just pressed her lips together and clenched her teeth, hatful towards him for being so stubborn. It was Sailor Star Uranus that spoke to him over the raging of his breaths. "Look at yourself, Kage. Even if you could fight the ones you wanted to, you'd be no match for them. You can't use your energy attacks, your Ryushuuken style is completely gone and you can't even rationalize this hatred anymore," she said.

"Bullshit! Your new powers are the reason I can't beat you. When I come back, I'll be twice as strong and kill you all," he snarled.

"Pathetic," she replied. "Do you really believe that? You don't even sound like the Kage I knew. There's nothing about our new powers that could defeat you. You just know you're wrong."

If there was one thing that enraged Kage, it was being told that he was wrong. With the last of his energy, he surged forward towards Sailor Uranus in a futile attempt to make her the one that was wrong about him, though his chance would never come. Sailor Jupiter's foot raked him across the face and he was sent onto the ground again, all of his energy depleted and all of his presence blown away. Sailor Jupiter stood in front of her fellow senshi, her eyes still burning with tears but her throat unable to produce anything besides the pulsing whimpers at the atrocities she was committing. How love could bloom out of blood-soaked ground, she could not imagine. However, this was something that had to be done.

Kage stirred again, his arms moving under him but his face hidden from them all by his shoulder. It was obvious he was in bad shape, for his form wavered under the strain of his weight, as if both of his arms were fractured or lost. Yet, he still moved with all of the purpose of getting back up, a move that sent a wave of pity over each of the senshi.

"Stay down, Kage! This fight is over!" Sailor Star Neptune called, her eyes alive with the reflection of a pathetic Scion.

Sailor Uranus was also on her toes to suppress him, but Kage continued to attempt his revival against the bitter odds of his weakened body and shattered soul. His eyes stared at the ground, barely open and hardly alive. The blood was still dripping from him but he could not longer feel it. His mind was infused with a red haze but he could no longer sense any difference. There was only one thought in his mind. _Get up._ His arms shook under him, bowing under his weight, and he quickly collapsed back onto his chest with a wrenching groan of pain. Whether it was his or not, he couldn't even tell. Again, he tried to push himself up but even his body knew that this was futile now. He was beaten.

Sailor Jupiter stepped forward and stood over him, her eyes hidden from the world by a lowered head and merciful curls of hair. Sailor Uranus had called out to her in an effort to confirm the end of this fight, the end of Kage's rebellion against them, but she did not answer. She stood, looking down at him as he tried to stand, her tears falling from the bottom of her chin to dot his back. There was no doubt that he was merely a pathetic creature now, unable to function within the realm of the greater good. Although the idea of beating him senseless until he relinquished this idea of unconditional revenge was still potent on her mind, she stared down at him and listened to the ranting coming from his mouth, the relentless rancor that saturated each word and the indomitable power behind his convictions to kill the two who had hurt him. She knew, at once, that he would never give up this revenge.

It broke her heart.

Quickly kneeling next to him, she took him into her arms and held his limp form against her, disregarding the blood and struggle merely to have a moment with him in her arms. Both Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus gasped, finding the entire scene a reason to pity them both, either for love lost or for hate immortal. Sailor Jupiter just held him, crying into his chest all while he laid there, his eyes cast into heaven and his mouth gaping in sheer disbelief. It was a surreal feeling, this young girl holding to him without regard for his deeds or motives. For a mere moment, even if he had wanted to push her away and threaten her against repeat, he was unable to stop her from holding him and giving him a glimpse of the things she was fighting so hard to gain. His body in shambles and his mind following in suit, this small moment of solace ceased his malicious intent and gave him, even if but that glorious moment, a sliver of peace in a tormented whole.

The thing she whispered to him was heard by no one else. It was something meant for him in this moment, where his mind was quelled and his defenses torn to pieces. The single sentence she spoke to him was short, but it had the effect of hollowing his eyes, making them malleable to the stars that shined down onto them and dotted his pupils with white over green. After she said it, she merely leaned back up and smiled at him, his blood smeared on her cheek and her tears washing it clean. In that moment, when all of his struggle had been brought to this woeful end and he was on the verge of touching the dark pool, he was suddenly aware of just piercing her beauty was, as if until then he had just been too arrogant to see it. There was nothing in sutra or song that could have aptly described just how divine she appeared to him, with a chorus of stars framing her face while a thousand notes played through the night in wind and water.

He had never been so frightened before. She was too beautiful. There was nothing within him that could rationalize the thing she told him, so there was only one recourse. To flee from fear, it took everything Kage had left to disappear from her arms by the last pining of his mind. There was no surprise in her eyes, just a light sigh through a lingering smile for Sailor Jupiter. Under the shocked vigilance of the other two senshi, she rose to her feet and turned, walking past them with no explanation of reason. Merely, she left the smile on her face as she headed home, satisfied with what she had accomplished and feeling that there was nothing more she could do in this matter, aside from her duty to Usagi. She had already served her heart's interest and, should she never know love again, could live with the heartache she felt.

There was nothing more that could be expected of the girl.


	9. The Prometheus Nightfall

Chapter Nine – The Prometheus Nightfall

The hot water was soothing. As Makoto laid her swollen hands into the large porcelain bowl sitting atop her table, the hot water sanctifying the deep pain in her very bones, she stared at the slowly calming surface of the water and noted how it had the ability to reflect her melancholy face. It was a sad sight to see, if only for the fact that even after such an agonizing battle the only wounds she had were the ones obtained by causing harm to the one she cared for. Even with the water forming a perfect membrane of reflection, she could only focus now on the red and purple lesions on her hands and knuckles. They were a cruel reminder just how real the evening had been.

_I really hurt him. He couldn't even stand up because I hurt him so badly. What hope is there now?_

After spending an hour staring into the slightly tainted water, its temperature dropping to room temperature so that Makoto couldn't even tell her hands were submerged, she had stepped into the bathroom to wrap her hands in bandages, perhaps in a sad attempt to hide the fact that she had mercilessly beaten Kage, soaking her uniform with his blood and his with her tears. Would it really mean anything to him that her tears were far more lethal when lost in mass quantities?

As she walked out from her bathroom, her apartment lit up with a flash of light. Raindrops began to pitter against her balcony door and the sky was churning with storm clouds and flashes of lightning. _Even the sky is crying for you, Kage. _Standing before the glass door, she watched the storm as it began to quarrel with the city. The wind was howling, the rain was falling harder and even the lightning seemed to have some great grudge with a city that would stand against its fury. The storm was sent into a war dance, something that Makoto was able to relate with very easily at the moment. As she ran her hands over each other, feeling the forlorn sensation of bandages trying to hide the deep wounds, her mind began to wander even further than the range of a storm.

The cold wind had no bite against her skin, even though it was a mere nightgown that covered her. Was it really only a plane of glass that kept all of the rage and requiem of a storm at bay? Could this wind, the same icy hand that swept through the sky and destroyed Autumn's hues of orange and yellow, be denied its nature by one simple layer of smelted sand? At the moment, Makoto wanted no solace from the squall. There was this sudden urge in her heart to step out onto the balcony, letting the wind rip her nightgown from her and relay all of its glacial passion onto her body, as if such things were the only things that could quench the aching in her heart and douse the flame of love she felt. Even as her breath began to create a haze on the glass, her heart was racing in her chest, swelling her breasts against the numbing glass and causing her mouth to hang open just a bit. The power of nature was breathtaking.

In a moment of casual grief, her eyes focused once more onto herself and the innards of her lonely apartment. There was only one plate on her dinner table, with only one chair ever pulled from perpetual neglect. There was only one kindred of shoes lingering by her doorway and only one coat hung carefully on a hook. Her apartment was full of ones. Yet there was only one thing that she really truly wanted in her life and that was to be forever free of that most pitiless number.

Two was such a sweeter sound.

It was yet another flash of lightning that ceased her breath, for the instant flash of white light had illuminated something in her apartment that she had never expected to see, especially on the night a fierce storm blew in.

Kage's face had only lit up for a moment, but Makoto could have retraced each line as if she had been staring at him for hours. Even in a murky reflection, she was keenly aware of him. Though her chest had seized against the glass and her hands suddenly ached ten fold, she did not turn around, mostly of fear of his immediate assault. Tensions was rampant throughout her body, but something deep inside of her was keeping her from moving naturally into a defensive posture when such an enemy was found in such close proximity. A breath lodged in her throat, she waited for his attack. Yet when a second flash of lightning filled her apartment with celestial light, Kage remained in the same place, his eyes glowing lucid green with each flash and his stature comfortably in the shadows. Makoto was able to see this time that his face and body were in far better shape than when he had left her mere hours before. His uniform remained in tattered form, though such things were almost moot by the time Makoto gathered enough courage to seize her voice from her throat and force it out into the chilled apartment.

"Why are you here?" she whispered, almost afraid of her own question.

There was no answer from the shadows, but rather movement from the shaded place into a place of illumination by the lights of a showering city. She could see him far more clearly now. His face was indeed much cleaner now, yet the large gash above his eye and a few bruises still remained on his relentlessly scowling visage. He was also able to stand now with no faltering in his form.

Makoto finally turned to him, pressing her back against the icy glass door and feeling it chill her skin right through her nightgown. Facts were never truly relevant when lightning flashes were bathing the face of the one you loved. Makoto found him very menacing in the intermittent flashes, yet she was able to keep mind focused and her expectations open. Unfortunately, her heart was still racing within her chest and she could keep her chest from rising and falling with each passing breath. She was sure he could see it. "If you've come to fight me again, Kage, I won't," she said, hoping in the name of any god that he would just speak to her. Cruelty was livid in the silence Kage offered her.

"Why did you say that?" he finally said, breaking Makoto's fear of an indefinite silence between them.

At first, she didn't know what he meant. A thousand conversations uncoiled in her mind as she desperately tried to find the one that would sustain relations between them. Then it hit her, leaving a brazen red across her cheeks. "B-because," she stuttered, her eyes falling away from him and to safety on one of her many plants, "you had to know."

Kage stared at her, trying to discover the depth of this strategy she was formulating against him. He knew that if she had been hoping to send him into internal turmoil, it had worked - yet the ends for her stratagem were not exactly known to him. With his emotional, mental and physical being teetering on the edge of self-destruction, the only recourse was to come confront her personally and find out just what she was hoping to gain by using these tactics. "You're trying to throw me off balance. It's just a trick to –"

"I wasn't lying!" she interrupted, glaring back at him. She was tired of him trying to evade her by simply being paranoid and delusional. He had come to her and now she was going to make sure that he was not able to evade her any longer. "I am in love with you," she said once more, this time only looking down at his feet.

The repetition was even more jarring than the first, though Kage was skillfully able to hide just how hard the simple sentence hit him. How she could be in love with him, he could not understand. However, this was the kind of deviation that could completely upend revenge. Love had a way of altering reality. Kage had to act quickly to stave off this new warfare. "Impossible. You're just falling in with your friends. I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to try going after me, but let me tell you about the real me, Kino Makoto. I hurt people and I steal and I even kill –"

"That's not the real you," she interrupted again, pressing her eyes closed tightly and trying not to think about all of the horrible things he had done.

Kage snarled, but managed to keep his temper in check with an aggressive response. "How the hell do you know who I really am?"

Makoto's eyes opened once more, but she continued to look at his feet. Running her hand along her chest, her fingers soon found the small locket still clasped around her throat and still warm from the contact with her skin. Pushing away from the glass door, she stepped silently through the room until she stood in front of him, her eyes rising from his body all the way to those captivating, if only slightly feral, peat green eyes. For a moment, she found a small sense of serenity in his eyes. There was a curse in her heart against the universe for placing so much loss and agony within those stunning green eyes. How dearly she wanted to reach her hand up and touch his face, yet the realities of their relationship came crashing back down at her when she saw the impatient drop of his brow.

His eyes were brought down to her hand as it opened in front of her neck to reveal the small locket and the picture of Kage and Mika inside. Kage's breathing stopped and his eyes drained, as if the reminder of what it was exactly that he sought revenge for had eluded him for many weeks now. The innocent smile of Mika was only half as alarming as the young man that was once known as her brother. It was so very surreal looking at this image of himself, as if it was not really a picture of him but someone from a completely different lifetime. Kage felt an intense hole open up inside his chest and it was as if he could not breathe.

Makoto watched the torment in his eyes and tried to fight back her tears. "This is how I know the real you. This is the person that I love and I know that he's there inside of you somewhere. You've just buried him under all of this hate and pain and now you won't let anyone near to help you find him again," she said. By now her tears were too commanding to be stopped and one stained her cheek, much to the further dismay of Kage. Makoto smiled softly and said, "I don't care if you think I'm just a stupid little girl. I want to help you Kage. I want to help you be this person again."

The brazen insanity that had appeared within Kage's eyes since his return seemed to waver a bit, giving just a small flicker of hope a place to dwell. He had never seen something so blatantly selfless in his life, even when there had been so much opportunity for valor in the face of the countless heinous deeds. This girl was like no other person he had ever met before. There were divine attributes that he had not allowed himself to see until then, mostly due to the fact that she had some strange ability to dilute the purpose in his heart; the purpose of getting that vicious revenge. There had not been these kind of feelings brought about in him since the days he spent laughing with his sister, the days before he became this monstrosity now existing as a bane on everything Mika would have held dear.

Shame overwhelmed Kage for the first time. Until then, he had been able to avoid such remorse out of the sheer instability of his mind, yet when Makoto was there looking at him with much the same green eyes of his loved sister, Kage was unable to avoid the intense despair filling that void in his chest. It was the shame that had been denied to him out of determination of his love-fearing heart.

Makoto winced as Kage stepped around her without even speaking in front of the holy locket. Now he stood in front of the balcony door, staring out into the storm in that same silence she had grown to fear. His silence was always the most dangerous since he was trapped with the intense hatred in that inaccessible mind of his. She turned and watched him, but never let her hand fall away from the nape of her neck or the locket that gave her the strength to continue to assail him.

"It's too late now. The real Kage died when Mika was killed. All that's left is the revenge," he said solemnly to the rain.

Makoto refused to believe it and took a bold step forward, the resolve of a thousand heartbreaks welling in her eyes and in her chest. "It's never too late! You can stop this and start over. You can have a new life - with me," she said, totally unaware of the burning on her cheeks as a result of the things she was saying. By this time she was working completely on instinct, which was often times the true path of honesty. Her only desire now was to break him of this dark destiny.

"You're too pure, Makoto. How can you be so goddamn pure?" he said, though the latter was directed more to his reflection in the glass than to her. In the face of a powerful storm and purifying rain, Kage's eyes now fell down to the infinite nothing between reflections, regressing its was back into his own mind as a defense mechanism against the things that would tear down the structure of revenge. The difference between the two of them was so apparent that Kage now delighted in his denouncement of Jupiter. There was absolutely no way that he could share the same light as someone as kind and beautiful as Makoto.

By the next flash of lightning Makoto had embraced him from behind, sliding her arms up around his chest and pulling him tightly against her, her face pushed into the broad expanse of his back. Kage's eyes were wide, his entire being challenged by this one innocent act and fiercely beating heart. It decimated him. Even had he wanted to move, she was once again holding him tightly and not giving any room for discussion about the matter. It was, by far, the most unsettling feeling Kage had felt since coming to this world.

Makoto would not let him go so easily, for she had strained her very heart in the attempt to win over this abandoned soldier of the right. Two very unique opportunities had been presented to her in this quest and they had both happened in the very same day. This would not be something she would waste. "I can't bear it when you push me away. Can't you see that I'm giving you everything?" she said weakly, her eyes pressed tightly into the folds of his torn uniform. Her body was pressed against his and her hands were nearly digging into his shoulders, which was something that truly awed the Scion. Makoto simply held in on in desperation and let her heart control her mouth. "Please say something to me. Please tell me that this is all just a bad dream and that when I wake up you'll be at my side."

What seemed like an eternity passed by in that dark room. Makoto and Kage both gave in to a small moment of the insignificant, yet both felt an undying clarity when positioned to one another. For Makoto, the eternity that passed with her arms around him was the final reward for her eternal struggle in finding someone to love her. She found contentment in a temporary fairy tale. For Kage, not even his hateful heart could have moved him against this embrace. It was a safe harbor in a storm of pain, struggle and destiny. In those paling moments, Kage was able to understand why it was that Sailor Moon was the most powerful senshi on this world and why the Universe seemed to revolve around her trials. Kage could have commanded the entire power of his guardian planet and still not even sparkle in the wake of such supremacy. Even his great revenge was something that simple faded away with these senshi's greatest power was brought into the environment. Makoto was not glorious due to the lightning that covered her or the strength of her kicks. The reason for her glory was simply stated with every repressed sob into his back and every pulse of strength going into the tug at his shoulders.

Her power was in her embrace.

This new revelation was rather unsettling for Kage. Haruka had been right when she told him that the reason for his inability to defeat them in their new forms was not because these Sailor Star senshi were infinitely more powerful than he was; rather it was the fact that there was still a small part of him, an infinitesimal sliver of infallible status, that harbored his human heart. No matter how much the darkness took him, this part of him was able to feel the strength of this girl and grow stronger under its guiding light.

However, the darkness was no less zealous in letting Kage go. "This isn't a dream. You can't ask me to give up this hatred I feel in my heart. We are different, Kino Makoto. You may love everything and everyone, but all I feel is hate," he snarled, though there was something distinctly different in his resolve this time.

Makoto was too weary to notice it. With only a forlorn whimper coming from her lips, she let him go and ran halfway out of the room, yet for some unknown reason stopped. There was no hope in facing him now, so she merely kept her back to him, her arms hugged around herself desperately and her voice coming out with entirely too much heartache woven within it. "Go away." Now the sounds of the storm were dwarfed by the quiet sobbing of a weary heart. The condemned bonds between them were the only things keeping them in the same room, though their backs and their hearts were turned away in the tumult of the storm outside and in.

The thing he wanted was the thing he achieved. Makoto's tears were washing his path clean and severing this frayed end from his perfect little lunacy. Makoto had been the only thing anchoring him to the world, a chain holding him from some truer purpose or age-old design. He was finally able to pursue his revenge in the purest way possible; utter apathy. However, as wildly as his heart was racing in order to take him away on the next flash of lightning, his body would not obey. There was something piercing his ears that he hadn't heard in such a long time, or at least in the octave that meant anything to him. The sounds of her sobbing should have been no different than the hundred of pleas and tear-soaked regrets he had heard over the course of his few yet furious years. Hearing the frustration and agony in Makoto's whimpers caused something to well up inside of him, as if finally he had discovered some parallel between the two of them. The truth was rather blunt when it hit him.

Makoto was as alone as he was.

For the first time since he met her, he was able to look past the fear and caution and use his unnatural gift of insight in order to see just what kind of person Makoto was and how lonesome she was in spite of being surrounded by friends that not only loved her, but defined her. He had accused her of having a perfect little life, yet the resounding fact of her determination to love him despite his banter proved that no one with a perfect life could have sought love so ferociously. The details of his entire existence melted away and ran down the glass with the rest of the raindrops. Revenge, insanity and darkness all fell helplessly on the battlements of love, making it the impregnable fortress and the only true solace for the weary. At one moment in his life, when the rules of life were crushing him and the sun was slipping behind the gray, Kage had forgotten that it was love that had steered him through all of the trials in his life - love for his sister. Now love was in a new form, yet held no less substance. Could he deny the only thing he had left of his sister's smile?

Makoto was at once aware of his presence behind her. No sooner had her body tensed up out of fear and rage did she feel his hand grasping hers, giving her the first real sense of active contribution on his part. There was only another flash of lightning before Makoto felt him pulling her harshly around to him and his lips pressing against hers. She was sure she was dreaming now. The kiss was so sudden and powerful that her arms, which had instinctively been pushing against his shoulders, now fell weakly against his chest and her eyes closed.

They were sharing their first kiss even as the tears of heartbreak were wet on her cheeks.

This kiss was not like how she imagined it would be. The few and far between kisses she had shared over the years had been gentle, soft or reserved. She had always been very bashful when it came to kissing, but Kage had sprung this one on her without any warning. Much to her unconscious delight, this kiss was primal and strong and it focused all of the frustrations of two people that had been forced into this pitiful existence nearby but apart from each other. Nothing in her novels could have prepared her for the pathetic young man she found herself kissing. Yet with all of the pain that had been between them, it was most satisfying kiss she had ever received. Sliding her arms up around his neck, she pulled him even further into it.

At what point everything became so unbridled, she could not remember. With her body in an uproar and her head swimming with the sensations of being able to touch him, Makoto had no reservations when her back hit her bed and her nightgown was nearly non-existent. Her hands were greedily clawing at Kage's tattered uniform and not even the blatant shredding of it was enough to rob her of the carnal pleasure taking over her very being. With him kissing her neck and shoulders, only the sounds of her own whimpering seemed real. The feel of his naked body against hers had all but destroyed her preconceptions about how the first time would be, for this was a far more primal experience than she ever imagined. There were parts of her body that were on fire, yet shivers were running up and down her spine with every kiss or touch of his hand. Perhaps it was not only the fact that her physical body was yearning for him but also that emotionally she had finally gotten to him and satisfied this love-induced lust she had felt since first speaking to him after his initial meeting with Haruka. The feral nature of the night was something that never whispered to her, yet there was no warning to just how much she wanted to be a part of him in those desperate moments. Paced sensibility was no match for the racing heart.

Everything became a vague memory. There was an assault of pain and pleasure, though nothing but the emotions felt real to her. The storm was their only witness as lightning flashes had given her glimpses of him; the expressions on his face and the purity of his being. Makoto's night had turned into the perpetuation of months of desire and frustration all tossed in together in a mass that resembled the churning thunderclouds outside of her glass door. Those sparse moments of heaven where he had finally poured himself into her were the only things that she could remember as she laid in tousled sheets and against damp skin. He had hurt her and delighted her and now he was giving her the one thing she wanted more than anything. With her face nuzzled deep into his throat, she was no longer alone. Heaven had no appeal while she lay there, curled up into him and absolutely content with what he had given her. Even as she heard the most heart-wrenching sound coming from him, she continued to smile as she held him tightly to her, relegating the fact that all of the chaos in his life had finally put him into tears, and even if he wept all night and into the sunrise, she would still be there with her arms around him and her breath to whisper to him that, from that point on, things would be all right.


	10. A Flight of Reason

Chapter Ten – A Flight of Reason

Emotion was the great destroyer of reason. It had no semblance of friend. To anyone in any place that had felt the overwhelming agony of losing the thing that was most dear, that pain was nothing more than Hell's wrath brought ten-fold onto the Earth. When it was tearing into the heart, not even a divine destiny could remit the determination needed to push aside the clutch of despair and see anything more than the jagged edges of that feeling.

When agony abounds, reason is upended.

Usagi had no reason to be there. Passing by was only a reminder that a great hole in her life had been opened up and she had no way to seal it. The very reason she had been able to endure all of the trials in her life had been lost and seeing the gray shadows of the bland building before her did nothing more than agitate the aching void in her chest. It was her emotions that changed a building like any other into a monument of catastrophic loss and the shattering of a cosmic fairy tale.

"Mamo-chan…" she whispered sullenly, her voice feeling like it didn't even want to brave the cool night air. Although she yearned to see a shadow move past his window, perhaps a familiar shadow parting the curtains and offering a warm wave, there was nothing beyond the window glass now but emptiness and darkness.

Usagi could barely stand all of the drama in her life. Friends had now become enemies to the most brutal extent and enemies that would be friends offered warm hands and smiles to her. The suffering in her eyes reflected in the eyes of one she held most dear, but there was nothing that she could think of to settle either storm. Her city was in danger and people were being taken, yet her mind could go no further than the empty building right before her. Although it had taken awhile for the reality to set in, losing Mamoru had truly affected Usagi within the last few weeks, for seeing two of her friends granted the illumination of love had reminded her just how precious Mamoru was to her. He was her prince. The entire world revolved around the fact that their love had endured a thousand years and shone through the most powerful evils known to exist. Could she simply accept that fact that all of that had ended?

The thought of Anubis caused a quiver of anger to creep up her spine. The fallen god of a universe not connected to this one had so easily manipulated her love and violated the body of her prince. She could still feel the foulness of his sweet breath on her skin as he spoke melodic poisons to her. Creatures of evil held no reverence for the sanctity of one's body, for they seemed to enjoy raping the visage of one so loved and using that instrument of affection to truly carve out the beating heart. How many times would the darkness use this filthy technique to further its own purposes? The very thought of it disgusted Usagi.

In the moment before Usagi found the resolve to leave, where her heart was most vulnerable and her eyes were searching the hardest, something beyond that sacred pane of glass tripped Usagi's rhythmic heartbeat and caused a breath of air to linger on her slightly parted lips. Were her eyes playing tricks on her? Did she really just see a flash of shadow across darkened veils of night? For a moment, she considered that she was merely seeing what she wanted to see and that anything found in the empty room of her lover was all optimistic longing. However, while she stood down on the street below, her neck arched slightly and the thunder of her heartbeat in her ears, something that could simply not be cast aside as an illusion flickered in the darkened apartment. Usagi's chest rose and froze, the evening breeze chilling the small of her back as it arched in an anxious hope. It was her hand across her breast that felt just how real the moment was, for her heart could not lie to her in the face of seeing such a sight.

The strain of charging up the stairs in a frantic spell could not bring Usagi down, even for a moment. Her legs were aching with the sudden burst of exercise and her breathing tore at the inside of her chest, but there was no solace for her body since her heart had taken over the controls of her mind and was pushing every muscle beyond reasonable expectation. She nearly broke through the door, oblivious that it was already opened slightly, and found the dying light she had seen fill the apartment. Her eyes reflected the slipping light and the figure it left in Mamoru's bed. It was nearly impossible to blink, for if she were to lose sight for just a single instant, she would find that it was all a dream.

Mamoru was resting in his bed as if nothing had been amiss. Pale moonlight sneaking past the few clouds in the sky cast a brilliant sheen across his face, as if this moment had been granted to Usagi for the pain she had been forced to endure. His presence was enough to make her stand there and fight the disbelief she felt, but it was hardly adequate to keep her from stumbling over to his bed, fall to her knees and put her shaking hands onto his warm arm.

It was real.

The breath that had lodged in her throat finally broke free and a whimper of joy filled the room just as the blinding light had before. Usagi held onto Mamoru as tightly as she could, mildly weeping into his chest and ranting on in incoherent sentences that only truly related how much she had missed him. Just being able to have him in her arms again was enough to melt the world away. It could have been forever that she held him tightly, but soon enough another figure in the room stepped forward and made her presence known.

Usagi wasn't able to bring herself to away from Mamoru for a moment, and Sailor Pluto watched with a bitter smile on her face. The love between the two was something that she had adored and admired since even before they knew each other, for time had a way of breaking all rules. Their love was something so rare in all of existence that she could only see the sensibility in staying near to them while her other side could not. The details of her own existence were things still best left in obscurity.

The ecstasy Usagi felt while holding to her beloved was eternal, yet she felt compelled to look away from him for a moment and address the figure she had somehow known would be there. "Sailor Pluto, where did you…" she began but the strange look on the Time senshi's face ended the question before she could finish it. It was a perplexing expression, and Usagi couldn't quite find one explanation that could describe it. Sailor Pluto's lips were smiling, but here eyes were hollowed and, somehow, at the same time filled with all of the mysteries of the universe. A kind face that she had come to love and trust beyond reason was now so mysterious to her, but she knew that whatever had brought Mamoru back to her, Sailor Pluto was involved. "Please tell me how you found him," she said, her hand tightening around Mamoru's.

Sailor Pluto's lips parted slightly, though not even a breath came out. The will of her other side was fighting against the needs swelling in her heart, making her the most tumultuous place in the universe. If existence was defined as the conflict of men and gods, then Sailor Pluto was the very essence of creation. Thought she wanted to confess everything to Usagi, she knew of the dire repercussions that would follow not only for her, but for everything that had transpired in this universe and the last. Could Jikan truly be as cruel as to wipe out an entire universe because a finality could not be achieved? She would like to think that the person she loved could not, yet she could also not judge him by any human standard. Atrocity was a singularly human idea, when put into the realm of their existence.

However, her love for the two before also bore great consequences in her life. Should she let them contribute to this crime against life, she would be betraying herself and them. It was never a just thing in her mind, letting the wills of higher beings manipulate lesser beings for some enlightened purpose. Would she have to choose between the love of the heavens and the love of the stars? With her lips pressed tightly against each other, her resolve quelled any fear and opened her eyes wide to Usagi and Mamoru.

"Still here?" said another voice from the darkness beside Sailor Pluto, though it wasn't a voice that any had heard in a long time. Usagi's eyes widened in fear just as Sailor Pluto's did, though only Usagi needed to look at the figure stepping out next to the Time senshi.

Eve was still as beautiful as ever, and just as she stepped out next to Sailor Pluto, whatever words that had built up in the senshi's throat suddenly fell away. The voice that had come out of Eve's lips was different than before, as if someone else was inside. Her eyes were also darker, cast upon Sailor Pluto with a resounding fury lingering in each reflective pupil. Usagi was speechless, for she had never seen such a look on Sailor Pluto's face.

Before Usagi could protest or Eve could command, Sailor Pluto's eyes pressed closed and a whispered apology was offered instead of a farewell. Sailor Pluto stepped backwards into a shadow and faded away, leaving a most confused Usagi to stare at Eve. Things were taking place that confounded her and took her beyond the realm of any sane rationalization. Sailor Pluto, someone she thought she had come to know so well, was acting in a very different manner during this entire endeavor, as if something were affecting her that had far more potency than mereclaw or fang. For a moment, Usagi even began to question the trust she had for her.

Eve suddenly shifted slightly, her eyes blinking as if she had just woken from a dream and her footsteps unsure, and she locked her eyes on Usagi as if she were the last person that was expected. "Serenity-sama…" she muttered, as if taken in a pale moment of her usual self. Usagi was surprised at the reaction, but soon witnessed Eve regain her composure and seemed to regain some bearing. "I see that your Prince has been returned to you. Did I not tell you that I am not your enemy?"

Usagi blinked, completely lost now, and looked back to Mamoru. "You," she whispered, "returned him to me? But I thought…"

"Serenity-sama, I fear that some higher power is at work here. Somehow, I know that giving you your prince is the wishes of my master, though I cannot remember releasing him," Eve confessed, her unsure eyes straying to the side and her left arm hugging across her body slightly. Usagi's mind now raced, for if Anubis had released Mamoru, then perhaps he had done something to him or worse. Eve felt as helpless as the girls she was allegedly trying to save, for images of Kage's madness still dwelled vividly in her mind. With Usagi's silence, she felt that the only person she could trust was the senshi before her.

"I no longer have any influence over my general, Serenity-sama. I fear no one has. He has now become a threat to everyone, not just you or I. For the sake of the world, he must be stopped by any means necessary."

Usagi's eyes dulled a bit, but she didn't look away from Mamoru. Too much was happening too quickly and she felt that the only way to stay standing was to clutch to Mamoru's hand. However, she couldn't deny the fact that what Eve was saying could easily be an unfortunate truth. Even trying to imagine what stopping Kage would mean for Makoto caused a rut to appear in Usagi's stomach. "Tell me everything," she said, standing and facing Eve with a strong resolve. "I don't trust you, and the reason Kage is so dangerous is because you made him that way. But I can't let anything happen because of him. So tell me everything you know."

The next hour was spent telling Usagi the many horrifying details of Kage's return and his descent into madness. Eve actually felt better as she spoke, but she did also leave out one very important fact. The name of Yamito never came up. It was a card that Eve would not play. After all, she still wanted him for herself. Usagi listened to it all, terrified and disgusted that such a thing had happened, yet surprisingly calm considering that she knew one of her dearest friends had become enamored with Eve's wayward general. It tore at her heart when she saw Minako and Ami so content with the return of Suteki and Kurai and Makoto's eyes dulled whenever she heard the name Kage uttered.

Still, Usagi managed to keep an optimistic feeling that she could somehow save Kage as she had saved countless others before. "Is that everything?" she demanded, sitting on the bed next to Mamoru.

Before Eve could answer, a weak, forced voice came from Mamoru and paralyzed the room. "Yamito…" Usagi whipped around and stared at him, for Mamoru's eyes were wide open and staring at the ceiling, as if he were wide awake and asleep at the same time. Usagi's heart stopped, as if to defy her life in the prospect of actually having her Mamo-chan once more. Seeing him with his eyes opened fooled her into believing that the worst was behind them and that she had finally regained her prince. Falling back to the bed, her eyes wide with hope, she finally coughed her voice past the knot in her throat.

"Mamo-chan! Can you hear me? Are you okay?" she demanded furiously, shaking his shoulder lightly and petrified at his expression. Eve remained reserved, her brow furrowed and her lips twisted in the natural snarl reserved for those moments when the thing most wanted is on the verge of being taken away.

Should the senshi, most prominently the Mars senshi, find out that the beloved Yamito was still alive, then she would truly lose everything. _Could this be why the master released him? Why would he wish the senshi to know that Yamito-kun is alive? _Her mind was a torrent and she ran her hands across her stomach, as if to cradle the essence of Anubis inside of her. More than ever, she felt as if she were being used. More and more, she felt that Yamito was the key to all of the questions brimming in her mind and she, at once, wished to flee back to her realm and confront him. However, she also knew Kage was there and that his power still protected Yamito. No matter how desperately she wished to obtain Yamito, there was no way that she could overpower her maddened general and find her prize. Something would have to be done in order to remove Kage as an obstacle. At once, she decided to play her trump card. The two that Kage had sought after so viciously would be given to him, if only to take his attention away long enough to finally get her hands on the sleeping Scion of Mars. She had, after all, promised him she would deliver them. Also, if these senshi knew that he was alive, then measures would have to be taken. Nothing beyond getting Yamito mattered to her now.

As the pounding of her heart filled her ears, she began to look on the wild Usagi with a darker expression, her eyes filling with a dubious haze and her lips pressed tightly. Despite the fact she clung to her prince, Usagi's heart also beat because of Yamito. Whatever loyalty she felt because of the feelings within her slowly melted away, being replaced with contempt for any that had the ability to take Yamito from her. Nothing else could sway him from her. Even the will of her master began to cloud in her head. Eve would have to eliminate anyone who loved, or was loved by, Kurobashi Yamito. That was the only way to obtain him completely.

"Yamito," Usagi said loudly, facing Eve with wide eyes and hope finally present once again. This news not only brought hope, but genuine delight for her very dear friend. She could barely wait to tell Rei. With innocent, blind eyes, she laughed lightly as she looked upon Eve, unaware of what was brewing inside of her. Joy had blinded her now. All she could see now was the reunion of her two loved companions.

"Yamito is alive."


	11. Love in Transcription

**Chapter Eleven – Love in Transcription**

Rei had been stunned in silence for almost a minute. It was the hollow void inside of her filling up that demanded her existence for the moments after hearing that the one she had come to love so fiercely was still alive. Her dreams seemed to have prepared her for this, but even dreams had little power over the scandal of real life. Suddenly, the world seemed benevolent in its mercy. Despite the fact that Yamito was not like any of the others, it was entirely too cruel to deny him the return that had come to the others. He deserved to be alive and she deserved to be with him. Now, it seemed as if Fate was returning to her the object of her suffering.

"Alive?" she whispered, her eyes still widened as if blinking could possibly rob her of the truth.

Usagi could barely contain her crying, for she had not seen such a look on Rei's face. It was as if the heavens themselves opened. There was nothing that could uplift the heart and release the spirit as uniting forlorn lovers, so Usagi felt a bond with her in that regard. Just moments ago, Rei had been celebrating with Usagi over the return of Mamoru. The sight of him returned, albeit silent in the confines of his bed, had turned Rei back towards the smiling child that had seemed to be lost during the recent tragedies. Usagi had been restored to her glory and her eyes were glowing once more with the light of the power that had endured a thousand years of dark ages. Love had come back to Usagi.

Their positions had now been reversed, as Usagi could barely contain the knowledge of Yamito's state within. The look upon Rei's face was something that only truly happened after times of sorrow and anguish. It was returning hope. It was the hope that the love she had fought so hard to find was stronger than mere death. It was the proof that even the darkest powers and the most devious designs didn't have the ability to deny love. It was, beyond all other things, the evidence that the human heart held the most powerful force that people could share – hope. In that hope, Rei was able to believe again. She was able to defy the darkness that had claimed her lover and remain as the pure child of Mars. It was hope that let her fall forward into Usagi's embrace and weep, clinging tightly to her princess and let loose the fear and doubt that had fed upon her.

Eve, in the meantime, was silently waiting away from the others. All great mothers were able to turn chaos into control in order to contribute to their offspring's future. As ironic as her creation was, she felt compelled to do everything she could to nurture the slumbering god within her. Anubis was vulnerable, just as she was. She needed protection and a guiding soul for her to embrace. Watching the scene before her, she quickly decided that this exceptional entity known as Yamito would be the answer to all of her problems. There was no better choice. Any person that could affect so much influence over the mighty Sailor senshi, not to mention of the Scion of his own people, was worthy of her love.

The expression over Eve's face became more and more venomous, for she was now going to betray all of the goodness given to her by the senshi in order to fulfill the one burning desire festering in her mind. On the outside, she was neutral and very sincere about her desire to stop her maddened general. However, on the inside she was turning white, void of any shade at all beside the one desire in her heart.

The Moon and Mars princesses continued to console one another even as the other senshi arrived to Mamoru's apartment. Usagi had contacted each senshi at the request of Eve, for Usagi was blinded at the moment at her sudden good fortune. It was the common enemy that united the different, but rarely did it ever provide stability. Each senshi arrived, adverse in the idea of even accepting Eve's presence. In reality, however, they all recognized the need to deal with Kage, though the one senshi that would find that idea the hardest challenge had yet to arrive. Each of them felt pity for the girl that had found a crusade in saving one of the most tragic figures any of them had ever known. With the story of Kage's madness and his dangerous instability, all of them individually decided that stopping Kage may mean hurting one of their own.

All became quiet as Makoto pushed open the door. They knew it would be her since all of the others had come already. The sun was just peeking up through the hazy East and the cold of the night air was crisp on the windows of Mamoru's apartment. The cold storm that had blown through earlier that night was just disappearing over the horizon, giving the sun a bleeding color through the haze. They had all expected her to arrive with much the same appearance, but they were all shocked as Makoto walked into the apartment a transfigured girl.

Despite the trend of her moping expression, Makoto appeared older and far freer than the day before. Her hair was the same, her clothes were the same, but her eyes were different. She wore an eloquent smile on her face, though the meaning it proclaimed was lost on all of the onlookers. In every gesture and movement, she claimed that something incredible had taken her and refused to let go. She was simply glowing. In one night, Makoto had become a woman.

"Everyone is here?" she said, closing the door quietly with an inquisitive expression. The others moved awkwardly in the room, for the situation was like no other. Eve was present. Rei had been crying. Mamoru was returned. Yet there was the ominous reminder that there were still things that needed to be resolved. One of those things threatened to destroy this new Kino Makoto.

"You are the one that causes the chaos in him," said Eve's voice from out of the crowd and Makoto finally realized she was there. It was surreal to hear the voice of your enemy from within the ranks of your loved ones, but Makoto was facing that reality all too quickly. Instantly, she was agitated and on edge, that beautiful sheen apparent on her now bristling along her skin like armor. Eve was the reason Kage had gone so far according to Makoto, so seeing her here made the Jupiter senshi very irate. Eve smiled darkly and stayed strategically on the other side of the room. "Had it not been for you, he would have been a very good puppy dog," she cooed, more or less to infuriate Makoto.

"What did you say! Kage is a person and because of you he's had to endure so much pain and suffering! Why are you here anyway? Probably so I can knock your…" Makoto began but was quickly cut off by Haruka, who held her back and looked to Eve with almost as much annoyance.

"Wait a moment. Although I disagree with her being here also, we do have a common problem," she said, looking back to Makoto in an effort to quell her rage. "We need to stop Kage and she is the only person who can take us to him."

Makoto almost felt betrayed, mostly because only hours earlier she had been laying in her bed with him, totally engrossed with the touch of him. She had lay for an eternity with her arms around his trembling body and found that beyond that feral appearance and ferocious eyes, there was a frightened little boy that had never been able to progress past the horror in his past. They had merged, him giving her a small piece of his torture and her giving him a sliver of hope. From that point, she was dedicated to him; devoted to the task of saving his tormented soul. It was the moment in her life where she understood that love was not the collection of words in a novel or the kiss on a television screen, but rather the devotion and perfect understanding two people felt for one another beyond any imperfect attempt to describe it. The love she had always sought was not something she could say in a thousand words, but rather the simple smile it brought on her lips when she merely thought about him. It was the ability to complete another person and be completed. That, she knew, was why she truly loved Yamamori Kage.

Suddenly, the room seemed full of enemies. It was a strange feeling, being so taken with someone that even those you held dearest could seem so wrong. Even with the obvious concern in Haruka's eyes, Makoto felt that the others only wanted to harm Kage. She knew how fragile he truly was and became defensive, pushing Haruka's hands away and flaring her chest out angrily. "None of you understand what Kage has been through. He's in pain because she turned him into some kind of monster! But I know now that he doesn't want to be this way! We can't help her destroy him!" she cried passionately, looking to Usagi for some support.

Usagi was surprised at this reaction from Makoto. Had it been different circumstances, she could have suspected the truth. However, too many things were going on for her to notice the truth and she simply smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, Mako-chan. Eve will only help us get to Kage. After that, we can all remind him that he has people who care for him," she said. It seemed to calm Makoto down, but she still glared at Eve with no intention of accepting her. The entire room became lighter. Others quickly became more active in the matter at hand.

"If our intention is helping Kage, shouldn't we bring along Kurai-kun and Suteki-kun as well? They are his friends, after all," suggested Ami.

"That's right. They should be there when we get Yamito back too!" Usagi added with a cheerful smile to Rei.

While Rei smiled with uncontrollable laughter in her throat and the others also admired the merit, Eve was quickly formulating her plan. In order to succeed, she must not have any of the distractions that could cause her to lose her desired goal. To that effect, she chimed in with a charming tone that quickly grabbed everyone's attention. "I'm not sure if that is a good idea, my friends. My general is very unstable and providing two elements of the past that plagues him so could cause him to spin out of control. We must remind him of the present and the 'intimate' reasons for him to remain calm," she cooed, giving Makoto a glance as if a small bird on her shoulder had been speaking secrets to her.

Makoto flared once more, but Rei quickly diffused the situation when she rose and spoke, her eyes locked onto her Mamoru resting on his bed. "She's right. The others will be something that will agitate him. We must concentrate on keeping him in the now." Rei's eyes were still. Mamoru had returned and was only able to speak long enough to tell Usagi of Yamito's existence. For some reason, Eve was eager to help them regain control over Kage. Though it was obvious to her that Eve was in danger, there was also something else in her that was warning her about Eve.

However, much like Makoto, Rei was being controlled by her intense feelings and desires. More than anything, she wanted to see Yamito for real. If that meant trusting this vessel for Anubis, then Rei would take the risk. For her lover, anything was worth trying.

Turning to them, she said, "We need to move now. There is a person that Kage truly hates and that person is in great danger. We have to stop Kage before he hurts Yamito." With very stern eyes, she looked from Eve to Makoto, for the energy between their lovers was spectacular. Both girls looked at each in a new way, for love had taken them both and the lines of war snared all those nearby. It was the love they felt that put them at these bitter odds, though the bond of friendship and loyalty still remained taught in a sort of cruel game of their hearts. Though it was only Kage and Yamito that reined the hate, it was Makoto and Rei that truly felt the pull.

"Very well," Eve said, pulling her arms from around herself and gathering all of their attention in one point, "I shall take you to my palace so you may stop him. We will enter the chamber where the Scion of Mars slumbers, so that your hearts and souls may congregate about him and save this poor soulless creature that has run mad. And when you have saved your friend and revived the lost love of Mars, you may truly see me for what I really am." Eve raised her arms out as if to invite the embrace of all, though it was her eyes that revealed her true form. Her lips had spoken sweetly while her eyes were burning with ash.

Soon, she would remove all things loved by the Scion of Mars. The deaths would lie upon the one who despises him so. Then, Eve would use her trump card and avenge the deaths of Yamito's beloved few, thus securing herself in his graces. The humans born of Scion would also meet their end, leaving none but Eve to embrace him. Yamito would fall right into her arms, where she could hold him forever and afford the possession that would make her the wealthiest creature in the Universe.

She would own the only seraphim in existence.


	12. Pitfall

**Chapter Twelve - Pitfall**

Eve took all of them right to the dismal room that held the silent Yamito. It was a strange progression for all of them since Eve's power was so deviously calm and lucid. It was almost warm as they appeared in the room. The prickling sensation of being transported dulled each of their senses a moment, but soon the décor of the room came quickly into focus and managed to wrench the breath out of everyone's throats.

What was left of Eve's acolytes was massacred around the room, their bodies propped up by poles or stones, but each one meticulously handled as if intended for display. Eve was the only one to grasp the meaning in all of it.

This was Kage's flower display. It was a horrid reminder that her general had gone completely mad, thus putting her into the difficult position she was in. Even if she could remove these senshi from her way to Yamito, they were, in all honesty, the only thing that could protect her from Kage. It was a disgusting little triangle.

"What is this? Did…did Kage do this?" Usagi asked quietly, her hand pressed against her breast due to the horror she saw. Although she had been picturing a far more beautiful reunion for her and Yamito, she had forgotten that reality included the insane along with the beautiful – sometimes superimposed. Feeling the breadth of her words finally getting out, she quickly looked to Makoto in realization that this atrocity was something done by the one she loved.

Makoto had fallen to her knees, staring with horrified eyes at the ground, for looking anywhere else would have reminded her that the brutality written on the walls was Kage's doing. She knew it. She could feel the anguish in his cries as each poor girl was shattered and broken. Whatever warmth she had felt because of their night together quickly flooded out of her throat with her pathetic voice. "It can't be…" she cried, covering her eyes from all of them at the shame of what Kage had done. The capacity for cruelty in his heart was as infinite as the capacity for love in hers. No matter how hard she tried now, she knew that there would be no easy solution for Kage. He could not just simply turn around and walk back to her.

His hands were soiled to the bone.

As all of the girls were sickened at the scene around them, Rei had slowly felt something creeping up her spine. It was the same quivering feeling that she had felt only in the presence of the one who had taken the power she possessed and immersed himself so deeply that there was no way she could tell where one stopped and the other began. Even before she began to turn, she knew that person was there. Feelings of utter chaos filled her being when she turned and found a lone figure aloft in a translucent mist. The dreams that had plagued her mind since his disappearance were strikingly accurate, but it was the same power of reality that stole away her romanticism of dreams. Yamito was right in front of her, real and waiting as if he had been doing so until she came. The beauty of him was something she had nearly forgotten and even the horror of the room around them simply melted away. She stepped towards him, unable to believe that only time had separated them until now. Her eyes had drained of any other reason but him and she carelessly reached out to touch his face.

"Is it really you?" she whispered, finding the feel of his skin surprisingly solid, as if to betray her expectations. Though he didn't stir, she still forced herself to believe the fact that what her fingers were touching was real, not some cruel dream that would force her to wake up in a cold bed with shadows as her only lover. It had been so long since she had felt her heart beating again. Yamito had become her calling in life.

Usagi, sensing that one of her friends had moved away, also pulled her eyes from the scene around them. The sickened feeling in her stomach was replaced by something very different; by something brought on upon seeing just how blindly Rei was staring up at Yamito. Even her own elation upon seeing Yamito had no substance when observing the desperate loneliness in Rei evaporating like the mysterious mist around them both.

As much as Usagi had been taken by Yamito, she could not begin to hope for the clarity she saw around them both. Rei, her best friend and most beloved comrade, was completely given to Yamito, for she saw it in every breathless movement in Rei's lips and every shallow cry in her eyes. Usagi exhaled deeply as she saw it – Rei's fragile attempts to understand just how much Kurobashi Yamito meant to her.

"It's gone…" Usagi heard it faintly, but could not look to Eve in time to get her reaction. Eve had been engrossed in the death around her; too engrossed to see that Rei had succeeded in touching Yamito. Now, after getting past her fear of becoming another flower to Kage, she saw there was no protection around the slumbering Scion any more. The one thing that had kept her from being with Yamito as Rei was had been removed, taken by the one person who's voice filled the room viciously.

"Welcome to my flower garden. It's perfect now. Everything I want is here…for my purpose," said the voice, accompanied by a crackle of white electricity at the other side of the room. All of the girls looked quickly, seeing a lone figure crouched down near the entrance to the room. Cascading lightning was running over the sword of celestial birth, lighting the calm look of Kage's face. His eyes were glowing. They had feasted in blood once more and robbed Makoto of her single saving grace. His hand clutched his sword tightly, sharing in the lightning that now ran all over his body, to metal and to stone. All of them could agree that he had never appeared as villainous as he appeared just then.

"It's time for me to end all things, to put this world into chaos. With one swipe of my God-granted power," he said, standing straight and placing his sword into the first position of his most powerful attack, "I will kill my enemy, my betrayer and…" Oddly, his eyes had been the one to betray him, looking disdainfully to the girl beyond all the others who had fallen to her knees in weeping for him. Makoto was staring back with wide eyes, unable to say anything to him after he had been so weak with her, letting his hate and power fall away so that she could simply hold him. The look in her eyes was so powerful that even Kage was unable to keep the word from slipping past his lips. "Love…"

It was nothing any of them expected, especially Makoto. After such a horrible thing, slaughtering innocent girls in a state of madness and truly enjoying it, hearing the word spoken from parched lips was a uniquely pitiful sound, for it was the true form of the word, stripped and resounding in its purity. Even Kage hesitated from his proclaimed deed, unable to break himself from the trance Makoto's devastated eyes cast on him.

Moments of hesitation were the springboards for acts of deceit. Not ready to give herself to death at the hands of a maddened scion, Eve leapt back and away from them all, casting her hand out into the crowd of distracted enemies. Sparkles sprayed from her hand, casting minute crystal through the air and onto the skin of each of them. Within a moment, a great crystal made of perfectly white sheen encased each of the girls, freezing them into the position they had been caught in. Having used their natures to best them, Eve stood behind the crystals, most notably Makoto's, and peeked out at the broken Scion. "So, my love, it is not the madness of the mind that has weakened you, but the madness of the heart? Who could ever love a pathetic imp such as you? You are a crying child laying the on the dusty grave of a sister that you couldn't protect!" she hissed. It was Eve's turn to get even with him. No one had ever instilled a fear in her as he did, for not even the Fates could predict just what he would do. Seeing the anger surge in his eyes, she laughed softly and leaned against Makoto's crystal, looking at her frozen expression and wilting heart. "You were so blind to this poor girl. Look at the power of her love for you. My crystal barely contains it." Indeed, the crystal itself was shaking, flexing at the girl trapped inside. All of the crystals were, though Eve found it strategically sound to remain behind Makoto's.

"Kage…"

The voice startled both of them, for Makoto's desire was powerfully enough to move through the crystal and call out into the tepid air. Eve, hiding just how magnificent that fact was out of jealously and rejection, laughed bitterly and knocked her knuckles against the crystal. "How perfectly pathetic, to love someone incapable of the same."

Kage was enraged now, his power manifested by the energy raging around his sword and body. Whatever he felt for Makoto aside, Eve was mocking him and harbored the power inside that had destroyed his life. That wasn't something he would forgive easily. "You bitch. What makes you think this changes anything? Now no one can stop me from carving you up like a roasted pig," he growled, moving his sword into a standard attack position.

Of course, that fact was very real to Eve and she couldn't deny the fear still inside of her. However, there was one more move she had to accomplish before everything would be hers. "My poor, poor general. You sell me short. I made a promise to you and I fully intend to fulfill that promise."

Moving her hand to the side, a glowing tear began to open in the wall opposite of them both, revealing a tumult of brown metallic light and energy imposed across a black void. It was the kind of place that no sane person would ever consider, yet the two figures that appeared in the tear froze Kage's expression.

"My my, we finally meet again, Kage-chan. You do remember us, don't you?" said the first figure, pushing back long beautiful strands of hair from his face.

"By the look on your face, I think you do. Do you know how long we've been stuck in this hell waiting for you?" said the second. He was more of a sturdy figure, waving casually to Kage with a clenched hand. Both of them were wearing the Acrolyth Scion uniforms that had once been seen on Kage, and even the girls locked in the crystals knew who they were by mere sight and association.

Kage's body had tightened, his face clenched in pure and utter hatred. If his bones broke and eyes purged from his stance, no one could have questioned why. There was such a hate burning in his eyes that no shade of his madness could have rivaled it. "You two…" It was all he could say, for it was a wonder what force in existence could have kept him back as long as he could.

The Legendary Scion of Neptune and Uranus were the two figures in all known existence that Kage sought after in his revenge. It was cruel and a work of genius for Eve to reveal them now, for Kage has completely lost all of his senses and had no merit of self control any longer. He couldn't even say their names, for they had lost any semblance of humanity when they had brutally killed Yamamori Mika. This past that haunted Kage every moment, waking or not, was presented to him by a devilishly smiling Eve. Not even Makoto's crying expression could pry his eyes off of them.

The only sound he could produce now was a howling scream, one produced by the sorrow, agony and madness created in the lapse of love or hope. Kage charged straight at the tear, uncaring whether or not he would return from it. As desperately as Makoto yearned for it, not one glance strayed from his targets or his revenge. In reality, he had not changed at all. It was a hard truth to come to terms with.

"Oh, here he comes," the Scion of Neptune said and retreated farther back into the realm. The Scion of Uranus grinned, glad that their purpose in serving Anubis would finally come to pass. This was their penance and their freedom. Years of suffering and waiting would finally be repaid with the death of a single Scion. Because of this, both of them looked eager to face the enraged Kage.

With a flash, Kage disappeared into the tear and it all disappeared, leaving the room void of any movement aside from the simple laughter of Eve. She was happy. No, she was elated. Things had proved to be simpler than predicted, for Kage was still as linear as she had hoped. He had even removed the last barrier from her prize, leaving a helpless Yamito to be preyed upon even as his beloved Rei was a breath away. Irony, it seemed, was in the distance between two lovers.

Looking away from all of the trapped girls, save for the passionately defensive Rei, Eve hugged herself lightly and mused at just how silly she looked. Rei's eyes were on fire, her arms were pulled back and every inch of her beautiful body was poised in order to protect her love to the very end. "Perhaps," Eve whispered, moving forward to place a hand on Rei's crystal, "I will make love to him before I destroy you. I want to see the hollowing cries in your eyes as you see him taken from you. How could a stupid girl like you ever hope to truly be loved by him? He is a seraphim, you know – an ascended being that will go beyond with world. You couldn't have had him anyway. But I, my dear fool, will ascend with him." Eve seemed very pleased with this prospect, for her plan was coming together nicely. Even if Kage were to defeat his opponents, he was trapped inside of that realm forever. Yamito would awaken to find all of the crystals shattered and their occupants destroyed. Kage would fit the blame, yet remain unreachable to Yamito. All elements of his life would be wiped out, save for the consoling whisper of a goddess. The cycle of hate and revenge would begin all over again.

Then, they would move on together, ascending to a new realm and existing together as one. It was Eve's great plan. With each of the senshi trapped in the crystals, it was the plan that would earn no interference – only simple deceit.


	13. Tears Bled Forever

**Chapter Thirteen – Tears Bled Forever**

As the colossal wave of crescent energy sailed into the distance, the Scions of Uranus and Neptune came to opposite positions around Kage after their nimble escape. So far, they had both been perfectly entertained by the fact that they were given their chance to escape their clandestine hell. Being sealed in the putrid, metallic brown realm was something that had disillusioned them both with the fact that they had betrayed their own kind in order to gain the power they had; a power that had yet been untested in this place void of anything but the damned. It was only in the embrace of a lover that either one was able to avoid the madness that was existent in solitude, yet now their saving grace had come. Once, before Anubis stopped coming to them in their hell, the fallen god had told them of the only penance for their betrayal and attainment of power. One day, sometime after all hope had faded from them and their souls were just beginning to wane, their powers would reach their peak. This would be a sign. A woman would come to them, a woman that bore Anubis's power inside. This woman would ask the one thing of them that would set them free. After they did this, freedom and all of the power they had gained would be granted and they could leave their hell together. When that happened, they were promised any world they touched would be theirs. This was the level of their power. This was the level of their desires.

"He seems much smaller than before, Mi-chan. However, he is very passionate about killing us, hm?" said Shimano Roka, the first of the Legendary Scion. He always was a kind soul, with a gentle smile and a dedication to the arts. With the power of Neptune, he was a Scion that embodied beauty and fluid grace in the powers his planet had granted him. With beautiful long hair and a very feminine posture, he had always portrayed himself as someone who ruled the world with his emotions and was sensitive to all manner of pain and suffering around him. Until that moment where Kage had been destroyed, no one had ever thought of him in an unkind way.

Hiramoto Michio, the second of the Legendary Scion, was easily the antithesis of companion. Brash, brazen and possessing a temper that rivaled that of Kage's, it was hard to see how he had become the lover of Roka. The two seemed so different, yet it was when Michio was with Roka that his softer side would be revealed and the fiercely competitive man would melt away in favor of a softer, more malleable person. Like Roka, Michio was someone that, despite his presence, held himself in valiant light and served his role as a Scion with honor. He was a motorbike racing champion and a fantastic idol yet he also performed the monstrous deed that turned Kage into the raging beast that stood before them. Though both appeared the same as when Kage had called them friends, they both now existed to him only as vicious villains that deserved every ounce of pain he would deliver to them.

It was his promise over the broken body of his sister.

Michio snorted heavily, brushing his curly blonde hair from his brow while looking down at Kage with the utmost scorn. "I've been waiting an eternity to try out my new powers in a rematch against you, Kage. Now that you're here, I find that not even that pitiful sword you have can bridge the gap between us. Look at you," he snarled, looking over the heaving hulk of Kage's worn body. "You're just a rampaging beast now. That Ryushuuken style that I so admired once is completely gone now. You're just a fool swinging a big sword now."

Kage was nearly at his end, panting in his exhaustion and staring in disbelief at the moment he had been waiting for. Every moment of chaotic thought since that day had been dedicated to the desire of killing the two that stood before him. It had driven him mad, caused him to kill the innocent and even discard the heart of a beautiful person. As much as he cursed himself for being as weak as he was, nothing still existed in his mind but the purpose of revenge. Sweating, heaving and weakened, Kage fell short of himself. As the two still taunted him, Kage's muscles tightened as he gripped his sword tightly. No matter how much he tried, no matter how many attacks he sent at them, nothing he tried was working. Every slash of the sword was held with the hope of tearing flesh or screams of agony, yet each time he would merely stumble off balance and see his target linger just outside of his reach. Kage was becoming frustrated with his performance, yet their taunted caused him to lunge out once more at Michio, howling in rage as he sent the razor-sharp blade at his foe's form.

Suddenly, there was a metallic taste in his mouth. He could feel it creeping from the back of his throat and across his tongue, gagging him with crimson coughing that sprayed a mist of red droplets onto his arm. Michio stood to his side, his fist burrowed into Kage's stomach. The utter disgust on his face was enough to make Roka look away, yet he still spit upon Kage as if the sin of defeat was far worse than the sin of murder. "You're pathetic. I can't even stand to be near you," he snarled, stepping back from Kage. A flick of his hand was easily enough to send Kage's sword sliding across the plain of nothing they were standing on, leaving Kage to wrap both arms around his stomach and fall to his knees, coughing and spitting blood. Kage felt just how powerful the punch was, for there was also a small amount of blood on his arms where they cradled his broken flesh.

Michio, feeling denied the battle he had been waiting for, reached out and grabbed Kage's hair, jerking his head back and staring into the green eyes that had once so desperately interested him. "To think once I was in love with you. You were beautiful then, as if you were cut from the curtain around Heaven. Now you're filth. I can see it in your eyes," he said, leaning down to Kage's face almost close enough to taste the bloody lips. "You're broken inside. Not even your beloved sister could look at you now."

That thought caused Kage's eyes to pale. He had loved Mika so dearly that her death had turned him into something that would have frightened her, even tried to harm her. The monsters that Kage swore to protect her from were now given a face. It was the very face that Kage saw when he looked into the reflection in puddles of blood or the gleam in an innocent eye as he broke them. Kage had become that monster and there was no better person to show him than Michio. Kage screamed, straining his foul body with all of his might to reach out for Michio's throat; to have one moment of sanity where he could hear the snap of bone and the drowning of breath in blood. Michio, taken by surprise by the quick lunge, had only enough to lean back and see that spark of life in Kage's eyes once more – to see the beauty in his soul again.

There was a snap of bone, but it was not from the place Kage thought it would be. Kage's left arm was broken in three places as Michio avoided his attack, sending a massive jolt of pain through his arm and causing him to howl out once more. Falling to the ground, Kage lost any grace as he grasped his broken appendage, screaming out and writhing in utter pain.

Roka, moving up alongside Michio and placing his arm around his lover's waist, looked almost sad as he saw what Kage had become. Like Michio, he had adored Kage in earlier times, yet also like Michio, he had turned against him. That reason was something they never spoke of, but they both felt it ringing in their ears as they stared down at he who caused them to both to betray their kind. "This is too much, Mi-chan. I can't look at him like this. End it. Please," he said, burying his face into the nape of Michio's neck. Michio, undaunted by the gesture, stared down at Kage with an entire new level of contempt.

"He deserves this pain," he whispered. "It doesn't even come close to retribution of heartbreak." Though staring with eyes afire, Roka's soft embrace caused his candor to soften and he turned his head slightly, taking a moment of no regard in order to pay his lover the proper attention. "You have always been too kind. For you, I will end it and earn our freedom." Roka looked up, obviously appeased by the words, but soon both of them were stricken by a growling voice coming from Kage.

They both looked to find him struggling to his feet, his broken arm left dangling at his side like a useless instrument. His head was hanging, with blood and bile dripping from his chin, yet he spoke through bubbles of blood and torn vocal chords with such ferocity that both Scion had to pay him a moment of awe. "I won't accept pity from you two pieces of shit. Nothing that has ever been can save you from the hell I will send you to. Until this body moves no more, I will come and come again until my last breath spits my soul at you," he groaned.

Kage's eyes rose to them, their peat green hues glowing with the endless energy he seemed to possess in order to finish his task of revenge. In truth, Kage could barely stand any longer and his vision was becoming very blurry. As desperately as he wanted to fall asleep, there was a word in his mind that kept repeating over and over. Soon, Kage began to say that word, repeating along with the echo in his mind. Only after a moment of watching his lips move did Michio and Roka hear it.

"Mika…Mika….Mika."

With the building rage filling him, Kage felt his some perverse feeling of strength stabilizing him. He was sure it was the power he needed to kill them both – the power of hatred and revenge. Just as the name was causing Kage to truly feel his hatred, Michio found his blood boiling as well. The name, spoken over and over, brought back the madness to him and he jerked his arm away from Roka in a fit of rage. "Can't you think of anything besides that bitch of a sister!" he roared and brutally began pounding Kage, kicking and thrashing his body every which way but down – so that he could beat this devotion out of him. Roka was silent and stared as Michio tore through Kage like an origami crane, the pain still vivid in his voice.

By the time Kage was allowed to fall down, all of his anger had been replaced by sheer delusion. Whatever energy he had felt before had been nothing in comparison to the strength and speed of Michio. The power that he had gained in this place was more than enough to effortlessly defeat Acrolyth Kage, even if he had become blunt and graceless. While Michio stood over him, heaving with the strain of beating Kage so badly, the bloody Scion lay on the ground not moving, his eyes barely open and his mouth pried open by labored breathing. He was defeated without even landing a punch. Had he been coherent, Kage might have felt an intense shame at failing in his quest for revenge. However, the only thing existent to Kage was the shadows that were moving in and out of his vision. Nothing was focused, but he distinctly saw shades of gray across his eyes through the red haze that fouled his left eye.

There was nothing that Roka could do. Kage could not return from such a beating and Michio was devoid of any mercy to him. All he could do was watch his lover brood over the fallen Scion. All he could do was watch.

"Mi…ka…" Kage moaned as the last bit of his strength was used to mourn her. Michio was beyond fighting him anymore, so he just stood above him, snarling as the last moments of Kage's consciousness were spent in the arms of his beloved sister. It would be the end he would offer to her memory instead; a moment of hollowing regret and shame. As Kage felt the tears of his failing burning in his eyes, he suddenly saw something that widened them.

One of the shadows he was seeing moved differently than the others, moving slowly at first but then soon growing in size, as if to approach him. His breath caught in his throat, Kage stared forward at the approaching shadow, the fear of dying now very real in his trembling body. Michio and Roka both quivered themselves as they watched him squirm on the ground and breath through groaning gasps. However, this shadow stopped once it got before him, pausing as if curious about this broken soldier before it. Then, a voice so clear and beautiful pierced his ears that Kage could barely dismiss it as the idle drone of death approaching.

"Ne, nii-chan. You look so silly lying like that. You need to stand up," the voice said in utmost childishness, causing Kage to groan even more and pool his energy into reaching a bloodied hand out. As his hand created yet another shadow in his vision, his heart began to race in the light that was forming around the shadow that had approached. Soon, it was a glowing vision of a young girl, crouching down in front of him and smiling with a smile that Kage had lost to memory. With the name moaned out once more, the young girl smiled even more and tilted her head to the side. "Could you imagine what people would think if they saw you in such a position? Everybody knows that no one can beat my nii-chan, ne?"

By now, Kage was crying, mumbling incoherently through bloodied lips. His hand, no matter how hard he reached, could not reach the image of his sister and he violently despised himself for not being strong enough. "Mika…forgive me. I can't avenge you. Please…don't go," he wept, trying to push himself along the ground to get closer but feeling the intense pain in his broken arm when he tried. It was a pathetic scene indeed. This would be the atonement for all Kage had done; this was because of his arrogance and abandonment of his heart.

Yet, Mika continued to smile and remain just out of his reach. "I know how much you love me, nii-chan. But, I'd rather see you happy again than have you avenge me. You've already suffered too much because of me and I hope you forgive me for making you sad all the time," she said.

That idea made Kage feel even more shamed and he clenched his fist, burying his face into the ground and trying to scream out. Ultimately, he only groaned deeply, his face being soiled by the tears and blood. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please, forgive me! Please, Makoto!"

At the admission of the name, the two on looking Scion were slightly shocked, yet Mika clapped her hands together silently and leaned forward onto her knees to Kage, her ghostly hand moving across Kage's head. "There, see? You do love her." Although Mika was cheerful for being dead, the aspect of her brother being love made her soul fly. While Kage remained motionless on the ground before her, she continued to comfort him and speak in her cheerful voice. "The person before me now has to die, nii-chan. There is no place here for the Scion. But if you are able to use the same power as the one you love, you'll become something so much greater than this dark soldier," Mika said, touching Kage's cheek as he lifted his head to look at her. To his utter defeat, she was still smiling. "Because you are my nii-chan, I know that you can do it. All you have to do is close your eyes and see the power that you have. The love for me and the love for her…is the key to your destiny."

The ghostly image of Mika leaned forward, placing a kiss on Kage's forehead. At the same time, the last of Kage's strength disappeared and his body went limp, his peat green eyes closing for the last. However, for Michio and Roka, they both watching in horror as a blinding light spread from Kage's forehead and engulfed his body, blinding them both the birth that happened right in front of them.

Like the Scion before him, Acrolyth Kage was no more.


	14. Sight Beyond

**Chapter Fourteen – Sight Beyond**

Laying somewhere in the endless waves of metallic brown foils and the endless horizon of hapless rock, the smoldering Scion of Uranus and Neptune were completely awed by what had happened to them. Blood crept aimlessly away from them both, their bodies mangled and their souls finally freed from the confines of their betrayal. The breath that had once spit insults and seethed cruelty now fell fast from their lips, synchronized to the fast approaching finality that awaited them both. Their lives had been an instrument of madness. The things they held dear had been taken from them both – their talents, their achievements, their indomitable spirit. As their souls lie shattered around them, it was spite for the Universe that caused them both to be smiling, resigned to the fate that had come of them.

For as vicious as their sin had been, the last moments of their lives were spent with each other, their hands clasped together and their bruised and beaten faces placed mere whispers away. It was the ultimate reward for their tumultuous deeds.

"Did you see it, Mi-chan? Did you see the light?" Roka asked weakly, his hand doing all it could to hold to Michio's.

Michio nodded through his blurry vision, only able to make out the smiling face of his lover before him. "Yes," he replied. He found it slightly ironic that his last moments would be spent pondering the possibilities of his life, for it was the strike of his hand that brought about his gruesome death and that of his lover. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to regret it. The last moment before all became a haze of pain and penitence was a glance at something truly wonderful – something that would deliver him into the next place. Squeezing Roka's hand as strongly as he could, his eyes closed for the last time and his last breath was given through bloodied, smiling lips.

"He is as beautiful as I always hoped he would be."

Roka, pivoting his dying moments on that last thought, smiled also as his head weighed like lead across his arm. The final Scion, those of legendary piteousness and design, lay timeless across the flats of a forgotten pasture, one that bloomed with golden flowers and savage green silk. As beautiful as their tomb became, it fell away from the sight of the living and dead, destined to be forever in the scales of reciprocity.

Yet the remained for always together and alone.

"Perhaps I will make love to him before I destroy you," Eve taunted to a frozen Rei, endlessly delighted at the look in her eyes. For Rei, the silent face of Yamito was an eternity away from her, just out of reach due to the crystal enveloped around her. Yet Eve was easily able to touch him, to take him for her own. It was the ease of her movement that delayed her victory. She had to take one last moment to savor her prize and prove that this love Rei felt for him was no match for the simplicity of destiny and the fact that Yamito's ambiguous existence was beyond human. Eve, being the seed of a god and the embodiment of four of the purest senshi, felt naturally inclined to be at the side of the rare seraphim.

But even in her case of crystal, Rei was screaming out that such a thing was a lie. This power that had devoured Kurobashi Yamito and now played his existence was no seraphim, but something much more fantastic.

Eve's eager hand strayed close to Yamito's pallid cheek. In the silent screams of the lover and the echoed pleas of the Messiah, Eve felt devilishly invincible and unable to be stopped. However, the ripple of the air around her and the piercing pain in her ears was the lash that brought her back to her fear and caused a prolific tremble to course through her. The shattering of the crystals sent the girls onto the ground, their visions hazed and their minds just slightly upended. Even the energy suspending Yamito broke away, letting the frail body fall to the waiting arms of a shocked Rei. Without pop or crash, the situation had been swiveled and each of the girls followed Eve's terrified gaze to the single figure standing precisely where the rift had opened and swallowed Kage.

Each of them held a pensive breath in their throats, for the figure that stood commanding the skies was none other than Kage. However, this was not the Kage that had leapt into the rift for his revenge, nor was any form of the Kage they had all come to know. This Kage was the true Kage. His hair had returned from the black tinge that had branded him as his Acrolyth self. What was left of his uniform was tattered and barely covering his body, revealing the cleansed skin free of scars or memory. It was the naked truth.

Every Scion was now gone.

Makoto could barely allow herself to remain weakened on the ground, her knees bruised and her hands prickled by the rubble and dust of the palace. No amount of fatigue could compare to the burning in her chest and the rumbling in her ears, for the feeling she got as she looked at Kage was the pinnacle of her hopes and dreams for him. Nothing but pure light was bathing him and there was no sign of the darkness of his soul. Kage had returned to the boy that she had fallen in love with by capture alone. This was the Kage she had fought so hard for and suffered so much over. His name came from her lips like a moment of adoration in youth or the abrupt giggle of a girl in love. "Kage…"

Eve was simply beside herself. This was no dream – it was a nightmare. The one creature she feared more than anything had come back from a forbidden dimension and had transfigured into something completely lewd and unexpected. He was a pure soul. That very idea made Eve tremble and feel the effect of his attack on her. "Impossible. How did you…"

"You have no idea what I can see now. I know what you are. I know what he is. I know…" Kage said from his isolated place across from all the others, his hand still raised slightly to his side and poised as if gripping something. Though he appeared far too menacing, Kage's body wavered slightly and the flashes of white energy around his raised hand began to fade slowly. It was obvious all was not well. Yet, Kage found enough clarity to finish his thought to a quivering audience. "Everything." With that, Kage fell to his knees, his body slumped forward slightly and his head bowed out of sheer exhaustion. It was nothing that Eve expected, yet as Makoto cried out and ran to him, she was granted her expectations.

"Kage! Are you all right?" Makoto cried as she slid next to him on her knees, her shaking hands coming over his shoulders to find them bearing no resistance. In fact, with the sheer will of Makoto's hand, Kage fell back into her lap and lay there, as if the dead had tricked the living. Makoto's mind was sent into a thousand directions and her bottom lip trembled. There was no instruction for a young girl cursed to hold a failing lover time and time again, yet Makoto felt no greater love as she did when she was able to hold him like that. Despite the curse on her tongue to the Universe for daring to take him once more, she suddenly passed breath once again as Kage's lips parted in sweet salutation.

"I can see it, Makoto. Even with my eyes closed, I can see the beauty of your soul," he said in a voice that startled her, yet comforted her at the same time. Unable to speak due to the sheer joy of hearing him speak, Makoto simply coughed a cheap laugh out and pulled her fingers through his hair. It was moments like these that worshiped the forlorn lover, and Makoto felt the stars circling her. "I wish you could see," Kage said, opening his eyes finally to her, "like I can see now." Makoto was halted, her eyes frozen in his. It was something that frightened her and amazed her at the same time simply because she had never seen anything like it before.

Kage's eyes had changed. Green hues that had once captivated her were now alive with colors of gold and silver marked around vertically slit pupils; eyes that had conspired to surpass the human condition and become something wonderful. Makoto's chest was frozen to her lungs, yet something inside of her told her just how wonderful this was. "Kage…what are…"

Kage smiled weakly and looked at her with his new eyes, taking in every moment of her existence as if each one were more precious than the last. "My master once told me of a legend that a true warrior of the Ancient Days could grow beyond himself and attain the Ryuugan," he said.

"Ryuugan…" Makoto repeated, her eyes not able to search his fast enough.

"Yes, the eyes of a dragon; able to see the past, present and future. I can see the threads of ki all around us, Makoto. They are beautiful," he continued, looking around them as if thousands of invisible strings were holding their reality aloft. Makoto could barely take it in, but Eve was clenched in rage. This power that had been gained was something strong enough to break free of a forbidden realm, even if it did exhaust the user. She knew what being was the steward of the Dragons and his name was too impressive for her to speak. All she could do was watch as this oracle of the gods was held tightly by a princess of the heavens.

"Kage, I don't want you to die. I just want us to be together," Makoto said weakly, as if she were as weakened as he. To this, she did not receive the usual biting remark or the crushing blow of his hate, but rather the foreign feel of his hand on her cheek and a tender smile on his face.

It was the most wonderful feeling she had experienced with him. "Honestly, I don't know what will happen next. All I see now is Yamito, and the fates of all of us lie with him," he responded. As his eyes closed, Makoto wanted to look back to the defiled rival of her beloved, yet his closing eyes made her claw at him more and fight back the tears of the unknown. "No matter what happens, Makoto, if this life was ever mine to give, I would have given it to you," he said, the energy of his body gone and his neck cradled tightly by her, though he relegated his fate to the one he had so despised before. Just being there, held by the lost love he had so yearned for, was enough to complete his jagged existence.

Makoto, sweetly surrendering to his sultry tone, placed her cheek to his and held him.

Although Usagi could have spent an eternity witnessing the love finally blooming between Makoto and Kage, a cold chill crept up her back just as a drop of sweat ran down her back, signaling to her that all was not right in this place. While she had been so engaged with the love scene, the temperature of the room had climbed to a sweltering level and the feeling growing in her stomach was something she had not felt in a long time. Heat that could petrify her so was the trademark of one person alone. One of the driving reasons for her deviance had been cradled behind her, yet the awakening terror in her heart staggering against the overwhelming desire of raw heat sent Usagi's emotions into a roar. Only the shrieking cry of Rei was enough to convincing of the unthinkable and cause her to turn upon the most frightening sight in her life. It paled her, drained her of her essence. The spectrum of life became nothing more than pastels in the wake of the limitless horror that wait for her beating heart. Yamito stood beyond them, two great black wings spread out from his back like massive sprays of fire and engulfing the entire width of the room. The jaded malice apparent in those spectacular wings towered over any hope in Usagi's heart that this was merely an illusion. No matter how much she longed to see him with his eyes open, it was the limp body held in his arms that broke her, causing her to nearly vomit in disbelief.

Rei was draped across in his arm, lifeless and listless under the heaving demon that held her. It had happened so quickly that only the cry of surprise marked her passing, proving to be a very dull memoriam for such a fine soldier. Neither the girls, nor Eve had enough time to weep over the unthinkable or even consider the truth before Yamito's eyes were opened fully and the flames of his indomitable power began to fan around the room. It was almost as the last time Yamito's power had gone unchecked, when a park in Tokyo was turned into a tomb in a matter on seconds. However, this power was deep and turbulent, stemming from a place beyond any comprehension of men. Usagi stared in terror as the lover and murderer of her beloved Rei held her body close to him, daring any to deny him of his prize. It was the poise of an animal, a mindless creature existing on instinct alone. Regardless of how taken she had been with Yamito, Usagi's neck began to burn with color and the feelings of remorse present whenever her heart was injured came boiling to the surface, stimulated by the fires of Yamito. She had not even seen what terrible fate ended the life of Hino Rei, but it was all she could do to attempt to push the cry out of her throat at him – to deny him of his deed. Never had she been so robbed of the world most beautiful moment. Countless times before, Usagi held a passing lover in her arms and wept over her, offering her the devotion that was duly earned. However, this foul deed came quickly and without fervor. Usagi's heart was ripped from her chest before tick came to tock, truly making this loss of life one of the most heinous in Usagi's long, destitute longing of life and love.

Yet, only the death awaiting was quicker. Yamito's flare began to consume all, destined to end all of the justice and devotion for the last time. There was no word or wait that carried them. The unleashed power of Yamito would kill them all.

The death of Hino Rei, senshi of Mars, was the last tumbler in a cosmic key that had been turned by the gods. With the room quickly becoming an incinerator and the agony on Usagi's face holding out to the very last moment of her own life, the spinner of all tales played his hand and stepped from a hazy mist between Yamito and the others. This single figure stood untouched by the flames around them, yet pierced them with gaze of a patriarch. With hell spawning around them and the fate of this simple world at hand, the figure tapped a glowing staff on the ground and spoke in a voice that echoed through the ages and rumbled the very foundation of their reality.

"It is time."


	15. The Design of a God

**Chapter Fifteen – The Design of a God**

It was one thousand years ago when the Silver Millennium ruled and a young Princess Serenity was seen roaming about the palace, not a care to be had. Peace was the rule of her mother, the Queen Serenity. Not one creature could begin to imagine the destitute fate of the dynasty, but such things were left in the squalls of time. To that end, it was this particular point in time that would mark the beginning of the princess's understanding of a universe beyond her mother's palace – to open her eyes to the existence of presence beyond sight.

Laughing, running with only a smile to consider, the Princess had eluded her escort and was free to do as she pleased, something that came as a welcomed deviation from the proper restrictions that seemed to ruin all of her fun. With the trailing her of her signature ribbons of hair behind her, Serenity was living the life of a typical eleven year-old now, the life that had seemed to escape her at every turn. Passing a few beguiled spectators in the hallways, she giggled even more and shrilly flew through each passageway, simply enjoying the joys that only a princess could. In her hand, she carried a replica moon scepter that her mother had ordered fashioned so that the young girl could feel important, just like her mother. As the world passed as a blur through her bright blue eyes, Serenity had no idea of the future that had been poisoned for her.

"Serenity-chan! Where did you go?" called a voice from a distant courtyard.

"Serenity-sama!" a distinctly deeper voice called only moments later. It seemed that the entire castle would be on the look for her, so Serenity took a moment outside of a large set of double doors to look around quickly. Her heart was racing and her chest heaved, but she was still grinning and planning to further elude her pursuers. Hearing calls from all around, she whirled around and pressed against the heavy doors, grunting against their weight but finally pushing them open enough for a small girl to enter. After entering, she quickly closed the doors and leaned back against them, catching her breath and holding back further laughter as the soldiers and servants outside were looking for her. What a good game this was! Absence always proved to provide the important with assurance to their place. Serenity just thought it was good fun.

After catching her breath, she looked into the room she had entered and felt instantly a bit weary of her choice. It was a room she had never been in before and with good reason. The air itself felt alive. The grand pillars of the room stood in perfect order, lined in a circle around the center point of the room. There was nothing else in this room aside from the pillars and a pale purple haze that seemed to warm against the skin of the young princess.

In the middle of this room, there were two figures. The first figure sent a wave of relief over Serenity, for no child ever felt as safe or loved as when in the sight of their mother. Seeing her made Serenity rush forward, fueled on the by the haze of the room, and she called out in a very brash voice, "Mother!"

The Queen turned away from the other figure a moment, her face showing the surprise at seeing her daughter in this place, but never was she able to keep a stern glance in the sight of the Princess. Turning to her, she crouched slightly and felt the embrace of her wayward daughter, speaking in a soft voice, "Why, what are you doing in this place, my little moon bunny?" As young Serenity began to excitedly explain how she had escaped and was running from her escort, her mother's dropping brow caused her to stop and consider the trouble she would be in. No sooner than she expected to be scolded for such actions did her eyes fall upon the other figure.

His very presence sent shivers down her spine and she moved in close to her mother, staring at him with wide eyes. There was a sensation in her stomach that made her quiver, for there was an awesome aura about him that rivaled that of her mother's ginzuishou. Yet, it was very different, but at the same time, similar.

Her mother, following her eyes to the figure, rose and looked down at her sharply, but still retaining her maternal glow. "You should not be in this place," she said.

"It is all right," the other figure said softly, raising an inviting hand into the air. The Queen smiled softly and turned, holding the Princess before her in warming arms. The young girl was finally able to see the man fully and the feeling she had felt when she first saw him never truly faded. He was tall and regal, his long hair a light shade of violet that matched the swirling mists in the room. His eyes were very strange to her, blackless orbs of a spiritual blue that glowed among the mists, feeling as if they existed in their own right separate from the man. At first, they scared her, but something about him was familiar as well. His clothing was of common design of the uniforms she had seen on Earth, uniforms that were the standard issue of the generals of the royal palace on the Moon's cosmic lover. To that effect, Serenity leaned in close to her mother, but never took her eyes from the man.

"Is he from Earth?" she asked timidly.

Her mother, upon being slightly confused by the question, looked to the figure and then promptly laughed softly, shaking her head slowly. "No, my dear, he is not. His name is Jikan and he is from a place far away from here," she replied, looking back to him.

Jikan also seemed slightly amused, but simply tilted the staff in his hand forward, revealing a soft violet glow from a very beautiful gem at the end. The bladed end scared the young princess at first, but the gem soon caused a small bubble to form before her, making it grow in size until it became big enough to fit in both of her hands. In the bubble, an image of four young men appeared, then to be replaced by one young man. Serenity recognized them instantly and blushed a bit, hugging to her mother as she watched the young Endymion. "Is this where your recognition lies?" Jikan asked, leaning his staff up slowly. Serenity simply nodded, entranced by the clarity of the image in the bubble. As Endymion began to merge with the four previous figures, she reached out and tried to grasp the bubble only to have it pop in her hand. A slight spurt of water kissing her cheek made her shriek lightly, but then look up at Jikan, her eyes full of wonder. "Young Serenity of the Silver Millennium, your future is one of great importance. You will live in joy, then sorrow, only to have them mixed for all eternity. However, as you are the beloved child of the Tear of Hecate, you shall never sleep forever, but rather awaken time and time again – to endure as the purest of hearts," Jikan said in a voice that echoed in the room, but also in Serenity's very ears. It resonated with her, caused her to feel burdened by such predictions, but she said nothing in return.

Holding her child, the Queen appeared very much disturbed as well, looking upon Jikan with sad eyes. Jikan offered nothing in return, just a glance and a commanding appeal of his voice. "Very well, I shall grant you this extension of my aid. However, her duties to the Eternal Gate are given priority over all other considerations. I have entrusted with you the rules of this realm, the forbidden items of her service. You must dictate these things to her, for I shall not influence the things to come."

The Queen smiled once more and bowed her head lightly, holding her daughter even closer to her. "Thank you, Chronus-sama. We are honored to accept her into our house. I will not forget how generous such an act is," she said, receiving a bow of the head in return. However, she was also feeling uneasy, as if this would be the last time she would see Jikan in her mortal lifetime. Still, this enlistment of such a powerful soldier had particular impact on her smile, for she knew the truth about the importance of the soldier of time.

Jikan's image began to ripple out of the room slightly, causing the young princess to grip her mother's gown tightly in fear of the strange and unknown. The mists of the room also began to swirl, coming to a point at the tip of his staff and being consumed by the eerie glow. Jikan smiled lightly, speaking as his appearance was fading from her sight. "You shall forget, princess of the Moon, yet see me once more when you have become the protector of the Galaxy, the soldier and Messiah," he said before disappearing in the final wisp of haze, leaving the two standing alone in the unimpressive room.

"Mother? Who is Jikan?" she asked, looking up at the Queen.

The Queen looked down at her daughter, smiling weakly but holding her just as tightly. "My dear moon bunny," she said, pushing her hair back from her brow to see her beautiful blue eyes, "there is someone you will meet one day. She is one of the sacred soldiers. Her name is Sailor Pluto."

* * *

Standing amidst all of the chaos and death that had assaulted her, Usagi felt much like a little girl again. "Jikan," she said, her lips almost unable to press out the name.

Shadings of her lost past were coming back to her like a coming tide, moving in and receding in a maddening pulse of memory and time. Yet while her entire world was seeming to crumble, the appearance of the man she had once forgotten made her feel that same unnerving feeling that approached whenever Yamito did, the sickly welling in her stomach of power and darkness, yet also light. Upon feeling this, many things clicked inside of her. Her eyes widened. Her mother had once called this man Chronus, the god of time and father to Sailor Pluto. Yet, this also caused her to stare forward at Yamito, the feral creature now standing with a lifeless Rei in his arm. Their auras were so attuned that Usagi stepped back, finally fearing what she hoped would never be true.

Yet, as Jikan spoke, her fears were only amplified into sheer helplessness. "Yes, it is time. The finality of this endeavor has begun and the final act begins. Now to the purpose," Jikan stated, the room around him beginning to distort.

All of them felt it, the wavering support of their reality shearing away into a false acceptance of existence. Not even Eve could bear this incredible change, for she screamed out and cradled her stomach just as light began to show inside of her. The appearance of the light caused a stir in Yamito and his wild eyes began to thrash about, causing his black wings to spread further and his aura of fire to flicker more. Usagi and the others feared another incident of total fire, yet Jikan simply waved his staff in front of him slightly and the beast fixed his dark gaze to him.

"You are nothing to me! I am a god now!" Yamito raged, his voice imposed over a growling, deep groan that signaled the duality of his existence. With the boast, a massive ball of fire appeared before him, called upon by the true depth of his new power. It seared the air around them all once more, yet Jikan simply brushed his hand through the air and the fire disappeared. Yamito was taken back a moment, yet tried again. This time the fireball was hurled through the air, yet it simply faltered and extinguished before reaching Jikan. All of the girls were in awe at the dominance of will, yet Yamito still raged in the face of a new servitude.

Jikan parted lips to speak, using the same voice that had soothed and frightened Princess Serenity so many years ago. "We shall see. The human known as Yamito has truly ascended any limit of this reality, but he has yet to become a god," he said casually.

"What?" Yamito roared, attempting to stretch his powers once more.

Usagi was then very surprised when Jikan turned to her, giving his back to the dangerous Yamito and offering her a very comforting smile. "As foretold, we meet again, soldier of the Moon. You do remember me fully now? I feared in the face of the impending battle, the Higekitai had robbed you of any clear moment to search your past."

Usagi was very nervous, very overwhelmed, but nodded slowly and took a step forward, almost as afraid of this figure as she was of Yamito's new power and madness. "Chronus-sama…" she whispered, though the name had never crossed her lips before. All of the others gasped, looking at him with utmost awe, for they all knew the name but never would have imagined the moment of meeting a god of infinite legend.

Jikan smiled, utterly ignoring Yamito. "The last mortal to speak that name to me was your mother, though countless others have cried it out. Are you fully prepared for the end of this?" he asked, though it caused a tremor of fear to pulse through her again. The thought of fighting Yamito thrashed her soul, yet the lifeless form of Rei in his arm demanded her purest emotions. Her friends around her stirred and she felt an overwhelming fright at their fates, yet she clutched a hand to her chest and nodded, able to make the hard decision as she had done many times before. Each of the others responded with determination, also able to fulfill their duties.

In response, Jikan seemed very pleased. "Very well," he said, "let this be the beginning."

Suddenly, there was a white flash of light and the place was chilled. When this moment of relief from the heat passed, Eternal Sailor Moon looked to find them all standing on the surface of the moon, the ruins of the lost Silver Millennium spread all around and an entire new number of participants around them. Every senshi was present, save for the absent influence of a sleeping Sailor Saturn. Even Sailor Pluto was now present, standing close to Jikan in terms of silence and doubt. All were restored to full capacity and even Sailor Star Mars was erect, looking about with a very confused look, obviously turned every which way by the abrupt darkness of her light, snuffed by the hand of her beloved. Yet, she stood now as if nothing was amiss. Sailor Star Jupiter was on her feet and astounded, her back pressed soulfully against a silent Kage, the man who looked about with the eyes of a dragon. Suteki and Kurai were also present, situated close to their counterparts with utter confusion latent in their stares. Eve was still engrossed with the light in her bosom, yet made no sound. Most importantly, however, was Prince Endymion, who stood adjacent to a much relieved Sailor Moon.

Just as life coursed swiftly, these moments passed so quickly that each of them had barely enough time to breathe before reality moved on.

The only figure not animated was Yamito, who now floated next to Jikan on the opposite side of Sailor Pluto. All attention wandered to the three figures, yet the ghostly images of the Silver Millennium passing and fading around them caused silent stirring, but never taking away the duly deserved attention.

"Your trials and tribulations have all led to this single moment in time. The Scion, whose entire universe was destroyed by Anubis, have arrived at their designated crossroads. The Sailor senshi, who shared this danger because of the love in their hearts, have taken these steps as well. Death and life have been your muses, love and loss have been your epics. Yet, I stand here before you not to prepare you for battle, but for commencement," Jikan said, seeming pleased with the result of cosmic analogy.

"Commencement?" Sailor Moon repeated.

Jikan looked then to the side just as Eve broke the mood with a howling scream. All eyes fell on her as the light inside began to consume her, taking her body into a blinding light and soon becoming nothing more than a glowing form of power. None of the others had been paying attention to her since the arrival of Jikan, yet now all eyes darted to her and her agonizing screams. The role of this provisional villain had come to a swift and lackluster end, for the true force behind the malevolence of the worlds was about to reveal itself. Sailor Moon recognized it instantly and went on her guard, feeling once more threatened even after Jikan's comforting, if not cryptic, words. "Anubis!" she cried, making the others instantly flare into attention as well, but then all were awed once more as the power field fell away to reveal a figure bathed in white light.

He was beautiful and ornate, wearing gold and white gowns that caused his entire presence to glow. Glowing strands of blonde hair cascaded around his kind face and all who looked upon him were instantly soothed. This was not the Anubis that had threatened so many and killed so many more, but was the essence of their conflict. Confusion was the better part of silence as all eyes followed the figure as it approached Jikan and rested his arms along his shoulders. The two spent a moment in a silent greeting, though there was nothing about the silence in the minds of the onlookers. This pastel truth about Anubis, Eve and Chronus all sent frays through their understanding of the situation, for this ambient figure was the name and number of the evils that had befallen them.

"Hyperion…" Jikan said finally, then turning and letting the figure finish his final function.

The man was Jikan's kin. His true name and role had been denied even Sailor Pluto until only after she had been forbidden from taking an active role in the things that were to come. Eve's beauty and purity of light resonated him, for he had shed the costume known as Anubis and was free to witness the end of the scene.

Yet there was far more to him that merely playing the part. Hyperion shifted his celestial eyes toward Sailor Moon, a smile crossing his face that forced her to wince. He moved to her with affection in his eyes and a longing in his hands. For the passing of an eternity, the kind only Cronus could truly reconcile, he had longed to touch her face and speak to her, even though his own duties would hardly allow it. Yet now was a rare opportunity and one not easily let go.

Hyperion reached out and touched her cheek with the tips of his fingers, wanting to tell her so much but unable to do so. It was his legacy that instilled so much destiny into her. Her mother, the once-queen of the Silver Millennium, had also professed the desire to touch the child once more, yet there were things that even gods could not do. How beautiful it would have been to tell Sailor Moon of her mother; how she sat proudly among those in the Pantheon and warped the universe so her child could shine. Those standing high spoke to her as Phoebe, goddess of the moon and child of the same Hyperion that fit forever in the simple touch of a hand.

Sailor Moon felt a piece of this in her grandfather's touch, yet the entirety of it was lost in his brilliance. Although he said nothing, she felt the love and affection of a family. If possible, she would have asked Jikan to stop time so she could ask her unanswered questions. She would forget Hyperion had played the part of antagonist. She would forget that he had been the center of the tragedy that was focused on the Scion. She would even forget that this entire façade had been staged by beings she could barely conceive of, a group that included the celestial roots of her family tree. She would do it all if she was allowed the truth behind all of this.

Hyperion had played his part, the villain that would forge a god from man, in order for this one moment with his granddaughter. He had volunteered for the part simply for that reason. All of the things he had done as Anubis and his kin were for the purpose – to coddle the Scion Yamito to this very point. Only gods could justify such heinous actions upon mortals. Hyperion even considered allowing her the truths of the situation – as a gift from a loving grandfather. But Hyperion was not able to give it to her. Touching her for just a moment was more than he wished for, but his role had been fulfilled.

Without revealing to her the truths of her existence, Hyperion faded away before her as if he had been nothing more than a dream. The others were simply shocked they were denied answers, but Sailor Moon choked a moment – as if she was able to realize the magnitude of what she had just missed out on.

Anubis, Eve and Hyperion, three names that were all the same, became the previous act and the interlude that brought about the conclusion to it all.

All of them looked to Jikan, expecting a quick resolution of all of this confusion. To this, however, Jikan simply turned a warm look onto Sailor Pluto and seemed to let the moments pass by in pure, sinful silence. To perform such an act would have surely brought protest, yet Sailor Pluto nodded solemnly and proceeded to advance forward to Sailor Moon and Prince Endymion.

The two, along with the others, were very anxious to hear what she had to say. With heavy eyes, but infinitely affectionate tones, she began to explain. "I am sorry, my friends, that I have been unable to assist. As you know, I must serve the Gate of Time as my service to this realm and also to the Queen of the Moon. This was a task assigned to me by the Queen Serenity countless ages before, but it was only under the blessing of my father and beloved, the god of time, Chronus," she said, smiling lightly as the reactions of them all were varied and even humorous. Dismissing the explanation of relevant title and position among the gods, she bowed deeply to them all as a sort of grave reminder of the things that had transpired. "I offer this not as an excuse but explanation of why I was not allowed to interfere – why I was not able to tell you of the terrible fates each of you would realize all for the sake of this one boy," she continued, looking to Yamito to draw their attention to the importance of the moment.

While all of them looked on, Sailor Moon's eyes wandered from Yamito to Sailor Pluto, and then to Jikan. Her heart raced once more as she faced the true dominance of a god, yet she spoke so softly that miles of ocean glass could have been captures inside of her whimpering eyes, "What commencement did Jikan mean?"

Sailor Pluto looked back to her, happy that it was finally time to reveal these things, and tried to hide the true terror of the truth behind a weak smile. "My friends, something that has never before transpired has happened to this boy, Kurobashi Yamito. The Pantheon, the highest order of gods and goddesses, has recognized that a human has attained such a level of existence that he may now be considered part of them," she said with no lack of pertinence.

The paling moment when all truths seem transparent fell across the collection of senshi, princes and humans like a storm, taking each of them from the moment they had seen Yamito as a friend to the moment where they all viewed him for what he really was. This moment was hardest on Sailor Mars, who closed her eyes fiercely, for she knew from the moment her heart had been given to him and she asked the terrible question of who he was, that this was the inevitable answer.

But for Sailor Moon, it was a totally surreal feeling. "Yamito? A god?" she asked.

"A phoenix, actually – a being with the ability to grant life and death with the fires in its very existence. Never before has someone of your realm been able to attain this level of existence, thus the celebration. You are all witness to the birth of a new god from your own kin," Jikan said plainly, presenting Yamito like he was merely a showpiece for them all.

It was a boulder to swallow. Each of them held a particular thread of the heart when it came to Yamito, yet this truth had snuck up on each of them before this moment. All knew that Yamito was different, that he was not even on equal ground with the Scion of the Moon. They even knew, upon seeing the power demonstrated in the park in Tokyo, that he had surpasses all levels of understanding in terms of ability and destiny. He was simply different from them all. He was able to ascend to immortality.

"No," said a voice from among the crowd, causing each to turn. All eyes fell naturally on Sailor Mars, who had the most powerful stake in this entire end. With her fists clenched at her side, she forced forward through them all until she came face to face with the god of time, her lip quivering defiantly against him. "You are going to tell me that my part you spoke of was to simply help Yamito become some god? Are you saying my love for him means nothing?!" she cried, fighting this growing delusion that she could somehow fight her way through the power and will of a god to keep something so dear to her.

Jikan looked down at her with a pallid look, his lips parting in a scripted response, "What is the power of love compared to the absolute of infinity?"

The response, even from a god, set poorly among all of them. Sailor Mars flared in anger and further defied a being of cherished prowess. "Love is the only power that goes beyond the gods! The gods may spread across the Universe, but only our love permeates every being, every life. My love for Yamito is more powerful than your entire Pantheon!" she cried, simply daring him to show his omnipotence and deny her this pain she was feeling. Regardless of the sanity in assaulting a god, her heart would demand no less of her for she was a girl whose heart was beating fast and furiously for a lover she could no more live without than the air she breathed.

However, her soul sang as the presence of those behind her began to chime, starting with Sailor Moon stepping up to her side with a deep desire to defy these gods and save someone she deeply cared for. Many of them supported the tortured senshi, standing close behind her and silently offering the foundation for an insurrection of life itself. Even as Sailor Pluto remained silent at his own side, Jikan was aware of her feelings. As much as the insolence of the mortal would have enraged the gods, Jikan remained neutral to their taunts, indifferent to their appeals.

He did, however, turn his head to Yamito. "An entire universe was crushed for the sake of this boy, the lives of the many sacrificed and the innocent dissolved. Your loved ones make a passionate plea for your fate, child of fire, yet there is only one that may make this choice. Are you ready to realize your destiny?" he asked.

As if commanded, Yamito's eyes opened and he stood weakly on his own, acting very much as if he were drained of all of his immense power but remaining strong enough to face them all. His lips were dry and his tongue offered no relief, while his eyes burned with every passing moment. No part of his fragile body escaped the aching of his destined powers, and he could not find relief past the sight of his loved ones standing to his right. Jikan and Sailor Pluto stood to his left, watching him with every passing moment. It was the realization that all of his life, all of his pain and the suffering of his loved ones came down to this destination that caused him to grip his head, his fingers pulling harshly at his hair. To choose between the gods and men was an epic malice, yet it had settled upon Yamito as simply as left or right. Truly, the weight of entire universes had fallen on him, yet there was one place he could look to find relief.

Sailor Mars met his eyes with the propensity to blur, her heart pulsing with each movement of his body and every purpose of his breath. She watched every twitch of his black wings, every shudder of his frail body, yet somehow was able to hold her smile for him, to offer him the support he needed. That last moment before she saw the creature in him, this phoenix so regarded by the Pantheon, she had felt an overwhelming surge of mourning, as if this would be the last moment she would truly be with him. Although she wasn't exactly sure what had happened when she was thrown into eternal passing, the mere fact that she had returned was sign enough that it was her purpose in this entire endeavor to be with him – to anchor him to the life he had always wanted. "Yami-chan…" she said, taking a step closer to him with a longing raise of her hand.

To her surprise, he stepped back, darting his head away from her and his eyes were set wide and afire. It hurt her, causing her to blink in confusion and lower her hand slowly as the longing love of her insanity was slipping further and further away. As much as she questioned his reaction, her heart felt truly hollowed when he began to move and speak. "Rei," he said, putting a shaking hand across his face and stiffly moving his body as if it were a strange thing to be attached to, "I can't feel my hands. I keep seeing these horrible images in my head."

As if nothing existed beyond their two hearts, Sailor Mars stepped towards him again and tried to suppress her frown, having a fine inclination as to what images he could be seeing. When he looked up at her, the blazing look in his eyes told her that he had indeed remembered what happened. "Did I…" he said, taking another step back from her and looking at her as if he had done the most heinous deed to her, even as she still approached. It was a horrible scene with pathetic players, but it played on.

"It's okay. It wasn't you," she replied, still moving towards him even as his single step parried her two. She knew forever that he would never harm her, and that her fleeting eternity had merely been the expansion of this thing growing in him. Still, there was no sweeter blade than the stroke of love, so she had no reservations at daring to touch him again.

Yamito still felt unstable, but submitted to her touch. However, just as the clarity of her hand touched his skin, Jikan's voice broke the tender moment in a moment of complete cruelty. "To quote a human adage, 'time waits for no man.' You are aware of the situation?" he said firmly.

Yamito relished the touch for a single moment, then reach up and took Sailor Mars's hand away. Holding it a moment, he then let her go and faced the impelling god, his face carefully construed in resentment and morbid curiosity. "You mean to tell me that my whole world was destroyed, my best friend was killed and my entire life was ruined all because you gods wanted me to join you? All of this death and suffering just for my ascension into immortality?" said the shaken boy.

Jikan smiled a very wry smile, his very presence seeming to emanate from the depth of his stature. "What are gods for, if not to make the troupe play?" he replied.

The response sent a wave of emotions through the group, but only Yamito felt truly outraged by the callous indifference in the eyes of the infamous god. Taking a threatening step towards him, he dared to call himself menacing and showed a glimpse of the power inside beyond the phoenix – the power of his soul. "Why would I wish to become a heartless creature that holds no value on the lives of the innocent?" he yelled.

"Spare me your moral uprising, young phoenix. You shout at the storm while peeking out a hole. Perspective is the essence of understanding, so you may not pretend to matter until you have truly seen with eyes opened. However, we are prepared to make amends to your bellicose spirit. All worlds everywhere are nothing more than dreams, to be made and broken with the mind. With the powers you will command, you may return things exactly how they were, with no death or suffering. Your friends will resume their lives, your past amended. The events leading to this grand ascension will be completely relegated to oblivion," Jikan said, pushing his staff forward to present him with a glistening bubble. In the bubble, an image of the world of the Scion appeared, with the lives returned to normal. A flowery picture of Ryu going through his daily life hit Yamito deeply, with the following faces of Suteki and Kurai commanding his breath. Even Kage was renewed, with a young Mika carried on his shoulders, and he seemed so pure. All of this caused Yamito's anger to fade, for his greatest wish was within his grasp.

For a moment, he could not look away. The beauty of his unspoiled world tempted his soul, for it was the result he long desired for this hell of ascension. Each of the others also saw this, catching them in its web of appeal and causing the former Scion to show keen interest. It was a dream realized; a painless end to a story that had consumed them and caused them to fray at the ends. This was no singularly standard option, yet the entire affair had unraveled as nothing more than the furthest extents of the ordinary – a battle not fought and tragedy not suffered.

Yet, Yamito looked away to the eyes of a silent Sailor Mars, eager to have his will coddled and his frayed edges mended. However, this was also heavy for her. The soldier in her demanded that he command this power to return all the death to life. It was righteous to sacrifice the point for the line, so that countless lives would be alight. Yet, the person in her would not let him get out of reach. The human in her would not consider forgetting they had ever met. The heart in her refused to stop loving him. This was all in her eyes, those violet pools of eternal vigilance that would not allow him to make the choice carelessly.

"Rei…" he said, twisted and contorted inside as this battle of conscience and condition. Even the paling smile of Sailor Moon and the wise endearment of Endymion only proved to make this complete agony for him. Yet, in his greatest moment of tribulation, it was his kin that came to his aid.

"The logical conclusion is that destiny is unalterable – that the events of our lives are what makes us who we are now," said Kurai, pulling the weary eyes of Yamito to him. With an affectionate glance to Sailor Mercury, he smiled weakly and attempted to adjust the broken glasses on his nose, the moral fortitude of his being satisfied by his meek understanding of causality.

Suteki was quick to join, pumping a fist in the air and offering his own brand of entanglement of the situation. "Hell ya! I dunno if it's right to cause so much destruction just to get a rookie, but all I know is that I've found the one girl anywhere that has a wilder side than me! I deserve to be selfish and want the best!" Of course, his shoulder was quickly punched by a steaming Sailor Venus over his scandalous remark, but Yamito was able to feel the pressure of his posture lifted at the support of his friends.

And then, he looked to his one great bane.

Kage was staring into the bubble, his eyes lit up by the images of Mika. While all eyes fell on him, his Ryuugan were glowing more fiercely than they had ever dared, for what he saw was the ultimate form of revenge – pure acquittal. However, his eyes soon rose to his great foe, the reflection of Yamito burned into the hues of green and gold in those mystical eyes. "All I've ever wanted is in that bubble. My life, my sins…are slated clean when my rival lifts out of my reach. To see my world, to hold my sister again…" he began, but a shifting of his tattered uniform caused him to stop. All hearts fell silent as Sailor Jupiter stood behind him, her hand grasped tightly around the remnants of his shirt and pulling them with the weight of her arm. Her forehead was pressed into his back; her eyes hidden fiercely from the world. It was sounded without words that her heart would not return to the hapless station it had subscribed to before meeting Kage, the destitute yearning of the love that she had fought for and attained.

For this tender act of love, Kage's lips turned slightly, causing him to appear in a splendid new light. He appeared as a reflection of the image in the bubble, a soul free from the whole of loss. "Nothing's more important to me than Makoto," he said simply. Behind him, Sailor Jupiter's lips turned into a weak smile and her hand grasped the material even tighter. In the end of their tragic love story, it was the one answer she had been longing to hear above all others.

Yamito found an odd sense of sensibility in his rival's conclusion, yet this choice was still a mountain before him. Turning back to Sailor Mars, he took her hand softly and pleaded with her to decide for him. For this, she just shook her head and looked up at him, biting her bottom lip to keep her from crying out for him to remain with her. Even as a sideward glance to Sailor Moon only offered more torture for a correct answer, he found a sort of peace in her blue eyes. Standing next to her prince, she struck him as being the perfect being. Not even Chronus seemed as pure as she, for great power became nothing more than useless title when not bound by a founding principle or ideal to fight for. When founded in simple being, power was pathetic. Usagi's love had served Yamito to an end that even he did not understand, yet when he finally turned back to Jikan, his visage reflected nothing short of unadulterated confidence in choice.

"The gods are cruel to ask me to choose between love and life. It shakes my very soul to think that I would have to become like you in order to serve the good of the ones I love," he snarled.

Jikan seemed indifferent as ever, yet gave a calming glance to Sailor Mars. "There is no loss of love in the gods. Conversely, you will experience affection far beyond human understanding. Looking at your feet, you cannot tell you are standing on a mountain," he replied, giving a glance over to Sailor Pluto now. His cryptic words had long since perturbed them all, yet she alone knew that truth and returned his glance with undying acknowledgement. Only they two knew what it was to be gods. Jikan, looking back to Yamito, offered one more pallid smile and the final clause for his ascension. "Being among our kin does not mean you are loveless. Truly, you may exist in an infinite prowess, being at a thousand places at once, yet still bring your love with the Princess of Mars to pass. That is what it means to be a god – to experience the whole of existence in a single thought, yet remain singular in your pursuits of heart, mind and soul."

It was over. Jikan set his staff into the ground at his side and said no more, for all he was to do had been done, all he must say being said. There was nothing left but a choice now; the choice – but also, the end that Jikan knew would come to pass. He was, after all, the god of time.

This story had come to an end that none of them had perceived, for it was the hand of the gods that turned it into a superlative decision. Their enemy had been a mask, their suffering nothing more than a thought to be dismissed and their one among them – a flowering deity. This was not a story of battles, but a story of choices. It was a story of love.

As Yamito turned back to Sailor Mars, Sailor Moon and all of his friends, he knew that he would end the story with a single thought. In that thought, that peaceful moment of commitment to the choice, Yamito's great power engulfed them all.

Yamito made the only choice.


	16. Blossoms at Sunrise

**Chapter Sixteen – Blossoms at Sunrise

* * *

**

_December 2_

_It has been a cold winter this year. But today iss unusually warm and all of us decided to spend the day at the park. Everybody is here. Haruka and Michiru are dressed so beautifully and are, as always, the most beautiful couple here. They just glide over the ground – they don't seem to walk at all! Setsuna is here too, though she doesn't seem to want to talk much. She just smiles and watches us all, but I think her mind is in another place. So many questions, but we all know better than to ask her. I'm sure she'll tell us only what she wants to and leave the rest to our imaginations. I don't think she knows just how badly all of us want to know!_

_Usa and Mamoru have been a breeze of warm air today, mostly because they seem so close again. For a while, I was a little worried. But now she just glows when she's with him, and that makes me happy. If there's one thing I believe in, it's that those two belong together and that their destiny will rewrite the world. But they're not the only ones that have someone now!_

_Minako and Ami both brought their new boyfriends with them and what cute couples they make! Minako is so funny when she's with Hitoshi, but only because they always seem to be laughing. I haven't seen a moment where those two didn't pulse with the love in their hearts, so I think Mina-chan's greatest desire has been filled. Besides, they're both so perverted! Ami and her boyfriend are exactly the opposite. They're quiet, reserved and usually just read together, but they look so cute when they're snuggled close with their noses in the same book! They're even doing it now. We like to tease them about it, but all she does is blush and bury her face in his shoulder. It's just so sweet!_

_Although I know I should feel sorry for Makoto, for some reason, I don't. She comes with us every time, bringing huge spreads of food, but she's always alone. With all of us having someone special now, I just want to cry when I see the look in her eyes, but there's something different about her. I can't explain it. Even though she comes alone, she's always smiling and never seems sad. I heard that a certain someone just disappeared, but even after a week, Makoto seems content. Although I don't understand it, I get the feeling that Makoto really isn't alone, but just waiting. In any case, she has all of us!_

_I don't know what to say about myself. I'm sitting here writing, but really all I'm doing is thinking about him. It seems I can't do much of anything without his face creeping into my mind, his voice filling my ears. I think I might be a little too obsessed with him! But it's okay. I want to be obsessed with him. I want my every thought to be of him. As long as I can be with him, nothing else matters._

_Yamito…_

_I don't know exactly why he chose me, but I'm glad he did. Every moment I'm with him makes me just a little more in love with him and there's nothing more I can ask than that. When the cold nights make me shiver and my room feels so alone, it's his touch that makes everything all right and all of the darkness to fade. Yamito's touch is just so…

* * *

_

"His touch is just so what?" said a startling voice over her shoulder, sending a chilling quiver down her back. Rei's body instantly froze and she blushed furiously, looking slowly over her shoulder to a kitty-faced Usagi. The perfectly shaped calligraphy in the small book had been violated and soon Rei's blood was boiling quickly, though Usagi jumped back with a nervous look and nervous laugh. Being caught peeking, she waved her hands in front of her vigorously while trying to defend herself from the malicious glare of the soul-spelling girl. "Anou, Rei-chan?"

Slamming the book closed with a deafening roar, Rei whirled around and began to stalk Usagi, clutching the precious thoughts in her hand with white-knuckled ferocity and pure and utter embarrassment. "You odango atama!" Rei roared and lunged, though an unusually nimble Usagi was already turning and running. Reading a girl's most intimate thoughts, even when she was writing them in public, was an unforgivable transgression and Rei was going to punish her for it in the name of justice. Soon the two girls were weaving all around, through frosted trees and wilted bushes, hollering and shrieking as only best friends could. Usagi's cries for mercy offered little restitution to her frenzied pursuer, but it did offer a bit of amusement to the two figures standing close by and watching.

Mamoru ran his hand through his hair casually, watching the two girls making a spectacle but still holding a slight smile for it all. "Those two…" he said casting a glance down to the figure standing next to him.Yamito watched for a moment as well, his eyes alight with the site of friendship, but he also smiled in his amusement and even offered a bemused chuckle. It was a sight that made his soul sing, so being slightly embarrassed was well worth it all.

The two were silent for a while, the sounds of their bickering soulmates causing stir and attention from all of those around. It was the kind of silence that centered on a question, for questions were often best bred in silence. When too much time had passed for Mamoru's courtesy, he glanced back at the singularly fascinating person beside him. After all that had happened, seeing him watch this display with such adoration made Mamoru smile as well. "Can I ask you a question, Yamito-kun?"

"If you wish…"

Putting aside all of the banter of their past, including Yamito's threats and tragedy of his own beloved of the Moon, Mamoru watched the two girls intently and focused his brow in the purpose of answering the greatest question of all. "Why did you choose this? Even if you had chosen to keep your powers, you would have still been able to be with her – been here. So why?"

Yamito thought upon that for a long time, his eyes not moving from the sight he had sacrificed so much to see. The laughter of love was something that had eluded him for many years, and even in the revelation of his own love story, he had never been able to allow that tone of laughter. But now, seeing pure, unaltered love in the form of friend and lover, Yamito's smile broke his posture, his eyes moving to the side and up to Mamoru. "This is all I've ever wanted. I'm human now, able only to live my life. I have a girl that I love more than anything and…" He trailed away for a moment, his eyes coming to term with a face of his past. Mamoru blinked slightly as he did, but Yamito's continuation would bring a very powerful smile over his face as well, as if their plight had been a dream. "I have friends that I care for and that care for me." Mamoru seemed satisfied by the answer and looked back, watching Rei and Usagi grappling over the sacred notes Rei had been writing. It was a strange, tender scene but both enjoyed it.

Yamito's eyes wandered a bit, looking to the others of his dream. To see Suteki and Minako romping about in a bit of snow on the ground; to see Kurai and Ami nestled in a blanket on the bench and reading a thick book, it made his heart sore. Even as his eyes wandered to Makoto, who was busy orchestrating over her blanket of food in preparation for lunch and the fare she received from a laughing Setsuna, he felt at ease – at home. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, his great rival was not simply a memory, but the recalling of the tide – soon to return. He could see it in the smile on her face.

Even in absence, that man was with her even now, speaking in her ear and blowing warmth across her neck. And with every gesture and laughing smile, Makoto exposed her heart-gone devotion to her absent, adored Kage.

"There is one more reason," Yamito said abruptly, causing Mamoru to look back to him. Yamito didn't return the glance, but instead kept his eyes on Usagi and Rei. With a smile completely devoid of doubt, he fixed his eyes and revealed the great, underlying motive to his choice of love – of life. "Jikan offered me the chance to be everywhere at once, to scour the skies and still share her in one single moment. But, truly…this is the only place I want to be." Mamoru found a sense of nobility in that sentiment and nodded, expressing his approval that he had chosen to stay as well.

After all, this was the new love story and it was beginning now.

* * *

The traffic of the train station was maddening. Thousands of people were moving to and fro, passing from one moment of their lives to the next. It was a sea of people, a flash of colors and blur of lines. No one had a moment to linger, to see the person standing next to them or even notice the diversity of life. But in the sea stood a solitary figure, standing strong against the undertow of movement.

Kage's entire appearance has altered. There wasn't as much change in his outward presentation as there was in his posture, his presence. His very aura had changed. He was smiling slightly. The world was a completely new thing through his new eyes and what he saw went beyond measure. With little more than the clothes on his back, he looked down to the train ticket in his hand and looked over each character as if reading his future. Place, time and area all became like symbols, for Kage was now an anchored oak pressing for the heavens. His destination was unimportant. In fact, he knew exactly where he would end up. However, the reflection of the ticket in the dark sunglasses he wore soon fell away as he looked back over the city of Tokyo, the city that had once been his womb and tomb. Someday, he would come back.

Someday, he would comeback for her.

A small girl had been standing next to him for some time now, staring up at the tall person in wonder, if only for the strange aura she felt from him. Kage tilted his head slightly, looking down at the girl from behind the dark lenses. Her brown hair and green eyes reminded him – reminded him the past and the future. Her innocent expression finally reminded him that his life was not a petulant pursuit of death, but the justification of other's freedom. It was a lesson taught to him by many people, but forgotten. But now, he would try to remember.

"You want to see something amazing?" he asked, startling her slightly as he crouched down in front of her. She didn't speak, clutching the stuffed rabbit in her arms, but nodded slowly in awe of this perfect stranger. Kage smiled slightly, reaching up to his face and sliding the glasses down his nose slightly. When he opened his eyes, the green and gold terror of his Ryuugan imposed itself over the soft expression on his face. At first, the girl was frightened, but then she slowly began to smile and stare into the beautiful eyes, awed by the sheer softness in them. Then, an older woman calling broke her attention, making her look around and then bow to Kage with a quick and simple goodbye. Watching her leave, Kage's smile lingered until he pushed the glasses back over his eyes, standing up tall with a glance over the city once more.

"I will come back for you, Makoto. When I find out the purpose of these eyes, I will come back. And then…" he said but trailed away, imagining his life with the love of his dreams. But his dreams were not yet possible and he had much to do, so he would sacrifice just a bit more in order to completely give himself up, to give himself over to the one girl in the entire world that cherished his heart.

As his hands moved up the hood of his jacket, the right hand lingered over his ear, feeling the earring that had taken residence there. It looked silly for certain, a young man like him wearing an earring shaped as a rose, but he was not about to take it off. The other resided at his home, and he would use the ornate rose to remind him of the girl that had given it to him – the girl with its companion in her ear. Flipping the hood of his jacket over his head and pulling the gloves on his hands tight, Kage turned from Tokyo and walked towards his train, and like the warriors of his legends, now set upon his own quest. He weaved through masses, moving against the flow of people, but never faltered – never looked back. Some sins had been too great for penance, but he would try as hard as he could to be able to earn the heart that beat for him. There was one thing that his eyes did see, for they were the cult oracles of a legendary god. Time was something not potent against love, and every moment he was away from that girl was only a memory's duty to convalesce.

And when he returned, the whole world would change.

* * *

_Sailor Moon Odeum: Rapture_

_By LeGrande Grover_

**_TheEnd_**


End file.
